Samson slammed three T20I centuries in consecutive series under Gambhir's stint as coach.
Sanju Samson opened up on his journey with the Indian cricket team, revealing how talks with captain Suryakumar Yadav and coach Gautam Gambhir helped him take up the role of opening in T20Is.
Once hailed as a prodigious talent, Sanju Samson made his India debut in 2015 at the age of 21. For the next five years, he was overlooked in the national side before he finally earned a call-up in 2020.
As of today, Samson has represented India in 16 ODIs and 42 T20Is, amassing close to 1400 runs across the white-ball formats with four hundreds and five half-centuries.
Under Surya-Gambhir regime, Samson slammed three T20I centuries in consecutive series, including back-to-back hundreds in South Africa.
“I’ve been on and off from the team and that was happening for a very long time. Honestly, that wasn’t easy. It was not easy to have those kinds of feelings. I had already played some 8-9 years of international cricket and I’d just played 15 games," Sanju Samson told Ravichandran Ashwin on ‘Kutti Stories with Ash’.
“I was there, I was not there. And I always tried to keep myself in a positive frame of mind. I kept assuring myself that it would happen, and different people have different journeys. Your journey is different, and be mindful of that, and you will get there whenever you are meant to be’. And suddenly the change happened after the [T20] World Cup."
“Gautam Bhai came in, and Surya came in as the captain. I was playing a Duleep Trophy game in Andhra. Surya was playing on the other team. That’s when he said, ‘Chetta, there’s a huge opportunity coming up for you. We have seven games lined up and I’m going to give you all seven games as an opener’," he added.
That was the confidence booster for Samson after a few low scores. He continued, “I was like, ‘Super. Seven games as an opener’, it felt great that it came out of the captain’s mouth."
“And then I played two games in Sri Lanka and got out for a duck in both of them. 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 said, I got the chance, but got out for zero. He said, ‘So what’s the matter? I will remove you from the team only if you have scored 21 ducks’."
“That kind of confidence from the captain and coach raised my confidence," Sanju remarked.