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 33 T20Is, amassing over 1000 runs across the white-ball formats with two hundreds and five half-centuries.
During the recently held T20I series against Bangladesh, Samson gave another glimpse of his exceptional talent as he slammed a blistering century (111 off 47 balls) in the third match at Hyderabad.
With this knock, the 29-year-old somewhat managed to silence his critics, who time and again have questioned his potential to perform at the highest level.
In a recent interview, Sanju Samson expressed his desire to represent the country in the Test format as well.
The Kerala lad said he enjoys playing red-ball cricket since childhood, and it’s his dream to play Tests for the Indian team.
“Mere ko sabse maja toh Test cricket mein he aata hai. Test cricket ka maja toh apko kahi aur nahi mil sakta. Woh pura apko nichod leta hai. Test cricket mein bande ka quality dikhta he hai. 5 din ka mehnat jo hai, mental toughness, physical toughness hai aur usme maja bahut hai. Mujhe jab bhi mauka milta hai, main aake Kerala ke liye Ranji Trophy khelta hoon kyuki woh Ranji mei 4 din tumhara pura nichod leti hai cricket. Toh usme bahut mehnat lagta hai. Usme jab success milta hai itna mehnat kar ke toh uska maja kuch aur he hai (I enjoy playing Test cricket the most. You can’t have the feel of playing Test cricket anywhere else. It completely squeezes you. The real quality of a cricketer is visible in Test cricket. There is hard work of 5 days, mental toughness, physical toughness, and there is a lot of fun in it. Whenever I get a chance, I come and play Ranji Trophy for Kerala because it squeezes you completely for 4 days in Ranji cricket. So it takes a lot of hard work. When you get success in it after working so hard, it gives great pleasure)," Sanju said on Vimal Kumar’s YouTube channel.
“Mujhe Test cricket khelne ka bachpan se bahut hai. Mai bolta nahi hoon itna, Mann ke andar he rakhta hoon, but I have always wanted to play Test cricket for my country. So abhi dekhte hai aage (I have been wanting to play Test cricket since childhood. I don’t say this much; I keep it in my mind, but I have always wanted to play Test cricket for my country. So let’s see what’s ahead)," he added.
Talking about Sanju Samson’s first-class record, he has scored 3834 runs in 65 matches so far at an average of 39.12, including 11 hundreds and 16 half-centuries.
