Sanju Samson has solidified his spot in the T20I squad with record-breaking three T20I centuries under Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy.
Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson has scored two centuries in last five T20I appearances. Samson finally did justice to his talent as he cemented his place in the T20I squad after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s retirement. Under Suryakumar Yadav’s captaincy, he has excelled but when the all-format players Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill return to the T20I squad,, Samson is not guaranteed a spot as an opener.
“I haven’t thought about it so far, I like to live in the moment, I will try to enjoy what happened today because it’s a special win, a special series win,” Suryakumar said in the post-match press conference.
“I’m sure when they [Jaiswal, Gill] come, we’ll sit and talk about it, it will be difficult but it’s a good headache to have going forward if you have 20-25 people and you have to make a team of 10-15, so it’s quite a challenge and it’s a good thing for every team, it feels good to see this, so when those players come, we’ll see, we’ll talk to them, there are a lot of people, team management, selectors, BCCI, to get rid of that headache, we’ll see, there’s no problem.”
Samson registered two ducks in the four-T20I series against Sri Lanka but scored two centuries as well. In the fourth T20I of the series at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, he remained unbeaten for 109 runs from 56 deliveries including six fours and nine sixes. He shared an unbeaten record-breaking 210-run partnership for the second wicket with Tilak Varma who remained not out for 120 off just 47 balls.
ALSO READ: Shardul Thakur reacts to Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024 squad snub after head coach Gautam Gambhir picked young all-rounder as his replacement
Samson scripts history
After Samson became the first batter to score three T20I centuries in a calendar year, Samson was asked what it means to him.
“It is a bit hard to tell right now since I’m breathing so fast. I have had so many failures in my life, got two hundreds and then two ducks, I kept on believing in myself, kept on working hard and it came off today,” he said during the mid-innings break.
ALSO READ: Watch: BCCI posts highlights of India’s match simulation in Perth featuring five batters including Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant on Day 1
“After a couple of failures there were a lot of things going on in my head, Abhishek helped me out early on and then Tilak as well. [on Tilak] I have had so many partnerships with him, he is a very young prospect and he is the future of Indian cricket and lovely to have a partnership with him. I don’t like to talk much, last time I talked too much I got a couple of ducks, I would like to keep it simple and focus on what I can do.”