Sanju Samson is a man of unquestionable talent, but his poor run in the bilateral series against New Zealand forced the team management to give him a break to ease the mounting pressure ahead of the T20 World Cup, head coach Gautam Gambhir said after the Kerala player took the hosts into the semi-finals with his epic knock.
Samson produced an unbeaten 97-run knock under pressure, anchoring a tricky 196-run chase against the West Indies on Sunday night.
“Obviously, he had a tough series against New Zealand. So sometimes it's important to give him a break as well because you want to get the guy off that pressure situation as well,” head coach Gambhir said at the post-match press conference.
After being sent down the order in the Asia Cup which disturbed his rhythm, Samson got a full series against New Zealand but a poor sequence of scores led critics to write his epitaph.
Samson didn’t start against the USA in India's tournament-opener but Abhishek Sharma's ill-health brought him back for the Namibia game before being dropped again. A tragedy with Rinku Singh (death of his father) and in their bid to break the monotony of way too many left-handers at the top-order, prompted the team management to bring the opener back.
“I have conversations with everyone and the most important thing is the guys who are part of this squad, are world class players and that's why they are representing the country. We always knew the talent that Sanju had. Three T20 hundreds, not many people have it, so we always knew that. And we always knew that whenever we need him in the World Cup game, he'll come and deliver for us,” said Gambhir.
The hallmark of Samson's innings was the pace at which he scored the runs. He went at a strike-rate of nearly 200 (194) yet it never looked as if he was going hammer and tongs. Even Gambhir agreed: “I actually thought that he never accelerated the innings. It was just a very, very normal cricketing shots and I never saw any muscling the ball as well and that is the kind of talent he has.”
Listened to myself, says Samson
India opener Sanju Samson shut down his phone and social media accounts to ensure that he did not lose self-belief during a lean patch that ended with a match-winning knock in the do-or-die T20 World Cup game against the West Indies here.
“Shot selection was something I kept working on. I did not want to change too much because I knew I had performed with the same setup, so I kept believing in myself, switched off my phone, switched off social media and listened to my own self. I am very happy it happened in a very special game,” he said.
Everybody wants him to do well: Gavaskar
The iconic Sunil Gavaskar says Sanju Samson is such a “nice guy” that everyone wants him to do well and his clutch knock against the West Indies must have taken the pressure off everyone's shoulders. “This knock of 97 not out takes the weight off not just Sanju Samson’s shoulders, but off everyone who knows what a fine player he has been. He has had ups and downs, and we have felt them too because he is such a nice guy. Everybody wants him to do well," said Gavaskar.
Former captain Sourav Ganguly, on the other hand, backed Sanju Samson as a constant feature in India's white-ball squads and expressed surprise at the criticism about the swashbuckling keeper-batter in the run-up to the T20 World Cup.
Also read: T20 WC: Sanju's masterclass seals India’s semifinal berth
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