The story of Sanju Samson coming close to establishing himself as a regular for India in the white-ball formats before getting eventually dropped and with the cycle repeating itself time and time again has become quite a familiar story. Despite his obvious talents, along with his experience of captaining a team in the Indian Premier League, Samson just can’t seem to break the door to the Indian team down.
Bursting on to the international scene as a precocious and prodigious teenager and making his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in Harare six years ago, life seems to have flown by and past him as he has only been able to feature in seven ODIs and 16 T20Is since then.
The 27-year-old finally got his opportunity during India’s limited overs tour of Ireland, West Indies, and Zimbabwe where the men in blue represented a second-string side. He will now have to make way for Rishabh Pant for the upcoming Asia Cup tournament in United Arab Emirates.
By Samson’s own admission, being on the sidelines of an international cricket team for such a lengthy period of time has been quite tough for him to deal with. However, the wicket-keeper batter prefers to stay positive in his outlook and approach.
“I am a believer that whatever you go through in your career, you have to take it in a positive manner,” Samson told the official broadcasters of the India-Zimbabwe ODI series.
“It’s very tough, it definitely gets into your head when you know that all your friends are playing and you’re not,” he further added.
On the brighter side of things, the Rajasthan Royals captain mentioned that despite playing so little international cricket, he is blessed to have quite a ‘good fan following’.
“I feel surprised (on his fan following) that despite playing very little for India, I get good support.”
During the second ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare, Samson took three catches and also played a handy knock of 43 not out to anchor India’s run-chase of 162, winning the man of the match award in the process. Batting at the number six slot, the player from Kerala smashed three boundaries and four maximums in his knock of 39 deliveries.
