Sanju Samson had just failed twice against Sri Lanka. Eight years of international cricket, barely 15 games to show for it, and here he was-sitting quietly in a dressing room, wondering if this chance would slip away too. Then Gautam Gambhir walked over. What he said next was so blunt, so unexpected, that Samson could not help but laugh — and then go out and score three T20I centuries.
Eight Years, 15 Games — The Weight Samson Was Carrying
For nearly a decade, Sanju Samson existed in Indian cricket’s most uncomfortable space — talented enough to keep getting called up, but never secure enough to settle in. He played just 15 T20Is across roughly eight to nine years before the current era. That kind of uncertainty does not just affect form. It chips away at something deeper.
“It was definitely not easy to have those kinds of feelings,” Samson admitted in a candid conversation on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube channel. However, he kept telling himself that different players have different journeys. That self-talk kept him going — barely.
Suryakumar Yadav Made a Promise at the Duleep Trophy
The shift began before a single ball was bowled in international cricket. During a Duleep Trophy game in Andhra, Suryakumar Yadav — freshly appointed as India’s T20I captain — walked up to Samson with a specific message. He told him seven games were coming, and he would open the batting in all of them.
That kind of direct assurance from a captain is rarer in Indian cricket than it should be. For Samson, hearing it out loud changed something immediately. “The words coming out from the captain’s mouth itself felt, oh wow, great,” he recalled.
Gambhir’s ’21 Ducks’ Line That No One Saw Coming
Samson did not capitalise in the first two T20Is against Sri Lanka. Consequently, doubt crept back in. He sat in the dressing room, visibly down, and Gambhir came over to ask what was wrong. Samson told him he had wasted a rare opportunity.
Gambhir’s response was nothing like conventional coaching wisdom. “So what? I’ll drop you if you register 21 ducks,” he told Samson — plainly, almost casually. That one line did more than any motivational speech could. It replaced anxiety with a specific, almost absurd target. Besides that, it told Samson that failure on two occasions meant nothing. He had a long runway.
Three Centuries and a Career Reborn
The results speak for themselves. Samson scored his maiden T20I century against Bangladesh in Hyderabad. He then followed it up with two more hundreds against South Africa in the same series window — a sequence that no Indian batter had produced in such quick succession at the T20I level.
In 42 T20Is, Samson now has 861 runs at a strike rate of 152.38. Furthermore, he has three centuries and two fifties — numbers that look modest only because so many of his best years were spent watching from outside the squad.
The Question Mark Hanging Over Asia Cup
However, the old uncertainty is stirring again. Samson struggled against England’s short-ball tactics in the most recent T20I series. With Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal expected to return for the Men’s Asia Cup, his place in the XI is suddenly up for debate.
The irony is difficult to ignore. Gambhir built Samson’s confidence on the promise of a fair, extended run. Therefore, dropping him now — after one difficult series — would contradict the very philosophy that produced those three centuries in the first place. India’s selectors face a sharper question than they may realise.
