Sanju Samson reveals Gautam Gambhir’s ‘21 ducks’ warning; Leaks private conversation
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Indian wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson has now confirmed his spot in the Indian T20I side with some promising performances, but it has all come after coach Gautam Gambhir backed the Rajasthan Royals star with consecutive opportunities at the top.
The Indian T20I side has seen a major change under new coach Gautam Gambhir, who stepped in after Rahul Dravid stepped down from the role. However, the marked modifications were due to the retirements of veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the format.
Gambhir entrusted belief in several such players whom others denied giving many chances, one of them being Sanju Samson, the wicket-keeper batsman. After a sluggish run in the middle order, Samson hit form only when Gambhir gave him the new role as an opener.
Sanju Samson shares joy on massive India opportunity from Suryakumar Yadav
After the World Cup triumph, when India did not have their legendary opener Rohit Sharma, someone needed to step up. Gambhir considered Sanju Samson over the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for the shortest format.
"Suddenly, the change happened after the T20 World Cup. Gautam bhai came in, Surya came in as captain. I was playing a Duleep Trophy game in Andhra. Surya was playing in the other team."
"That's where Surya told me, ' Chetta, there is a huge opportunity coming up for you. We have seven games lined up, and I am going to give you all seven games as an opener'. Hearing that from the captain's mouth itself, that felt great," Samson said in an interview with R Ashwin.
"Will remove you after 21 ducks," Sanju Samons recalls Gambhir's support before the batter hit form
He started off as an opener in the Sri Lanka tour and returned with two consecutive ducks in the two games, a golden duck, and another four-ball duck. Despite this, Samson was not dropped from the opening role, as he recalled what Gambhir said to him in the dressing room.
"Then I played two matches in Sri Lanka after that, I was out for ducks in both matches. The memories of being in and out of the team started flooding in, and I thought that was it."
"I was a bit down in the dressing room, and Gauti bhai saw it. He came up to me and asked what happened. I told him I did not capitalise on the chance that I got. He was like, 'So? I will remove you from the team only if you have scored 21 ducks'," he added.
He then continued to open and hit back-to-back hundreds for India against Bangladesh and against South Africa, which sealed his spot as a T20I opener.
"I was there, and I was not there." - Sanju Samson on limited international opportunities
Sanju Samson has had a long wait before he could call himself a regular international cricketer, despite having made his debut long ago. Despite his presence of nearly a decade in international cricket, he was never the first-choice candidate and had to settle for only sporadic opportunities.
"Being on and off the team was happening for a long time then. Honestly, it was not easy, Anna. It was not easy to have those kinds of feelings; I had already played 8-9 years of international cricket, and I had just played 15 games," Samson admitted his feelings.
"I was there, and I was not there. I always tried to keep myself in a positive frame of mind. I kept assuring it would happen, and different people have different journeys," Samson said.
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India National Cricket Team Sanju Samson Rohit Sharma Gautam Gambhir Ravichandran Ashwin Suryakumar Yadav
