Sanju Samson has a rather peculiar relationship with the Indian team.
There have been instances when he has looked absolutely indispensable to India’s plans, scoring runs at stages and in places where most other batters have struggled.
But then a string of low scores draw attention to his spot on the team with other names starting to enter the conversation.
The most interesting part, however, is that every time the clamours of his critics have intensified, Samson has silenced the detractors with his bat.
The latest example was on Friday against West Indies in Ranchi. Leading up to the match, the Indian opener had scores of 9, 7, 2, and 11 in his previous four outings. That is 29 runs in 29 balls at an average of 7.25.
Now, with Samson’s talent and playing for India at the highest level, that string of scores is enough to invite unwelcome scrutiny.
There was a lot of noise around Samson’s place and whether India should give their ‘wonderkid’, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, a go in the match. The Kerala-born responded in the most emphatic way possible.
In the second T20I against West Indies, he brought up his 50 off just 21 deliveries and went on to score 82 runs off 41 balls. He scored nearly three times what he had accumulated in the previous four innings in just one night and did it at a strike rate of exactly 200.
The same story, only weeks earlier
In September, Samson had gone five innings without getting significant with the bat. He had managed scores of 5, 0, 1, 27 and 10 in those outings — a tally of 43 runs at an average of 8.60.
Sanjay Manjrekar questioned Samson’s spot in the playing XI during the first match against Afghanistan: “Sanju Samson doesn’t help his own cause; he’s pretty inconsistent,” he said during live commentary. Mohammad Kaif also raised concerns about India dropping Sooryavanshi, despite the young left-hander having performed brilliantly against Zimbabwe.
Cut to two days later, he struck 57 off 22 balls against Afghanistan at a strike rate of 259.09. He then followed it up with another masterclass, scoring 50 off 35 balls in the next game. So after managing only 43 runs in five innings, Samson amassed 107 runs off 57 deliveries in the next two matches.
The more you keep turning the clock backwards, the more you get acquainted with such a pattern in Samson’s career. In fact, a few months back, the stakes were considerably greater. The home series against New Zealand did not go his way.
In the five matches, he scored 10, 6, 0, 24 and 6. That is just 46 runs in five innings at an average of 9.20. Former Indian opener Krishnamachari Srikkanth was not too impressed by his show, leading up to a crucial tournament such as the T20 World Cup. “Sanju is under pressure. He is looking desperate,” Srikkanth observed on his YouTube channel.
With a marquee tournament knocking at the door, India tried Ishan Kishan at the top in the warm-up game against South Africa. As the tournament got underway, Samson found himself out of the playing combination.
On return to the side, he made 22 against Namibia. He was benched again before getting a go against Zimbabwe as a spot opened up due to Rinku Singh’s unavailability, where he scored 24. So, across seven innings, Samson had scored just 92 runs without ever crossing the 25-run mark.
But then came the must-win Super Eight match against West Indies, and Samson got back into the playing XI. He scored an unbeaten 97 off 50 balls, becoming the prime architect of India’s win.
However, he did not stop there; he followed it up with a score of 89 off 42 against England in the semi-final and then an 89 off 46 against New Zealand in the final.
In the three matches, Samson scored 275 runs off 138 balls, at a strike rate of 199.28. And the most important part of this string of performances was that his best version emerged under pressure. Samson finished the tournament with 321 runs and won the Player of the Tournament award. From his place in the XI becoming precarious, Samson emerged at the centre of India’s title-winning run.
A pattern that has become a part of Samson’s identity
Let us go back to July 2024. Samson scored 29 and 10 against Bangladesh after two ducks against Sri Lanka. A tally of just 39 runs in four innings. Then he smashed his first T20I century, scoring 111 off just 47 deliveries against Bangladesh.
He followed this up with another century to open the series against South Africa, scoring 107 off 50 balls. This was followed by two more ducks, and Johannesburg witnessed another comeback, as he scored 109 off 56 balls.
It was an extraordinary sequence, showing both the floor and ceiling of the batter in a span of just five innings. The sequence of his scores was: 111, 107, 0, 0, and 109*; 327 runs in five innings with two ducks and three centuries. That is extreme volatility even by modern T20 standards.
Criticism has been a part of his career even before. In June 2022, Sunil Gavaskar questioned his shot selection after Samson had accumulated only 174 runs in 12 T20I innings at an average of 14.50.
“Everybody deserves more chances, but you have to make the most of them,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports. Only a week later, Samson responded with a brilliant 77 off 42 balls, his first T20I half-century.
Also Read: Tilak Varma steps out of his comfort zone to fill India’s finisher void
A deeper look at Samson’s five comeback instances since October 2024 to October 2026 reveals quite a lot. In 22 innings before the big knocks, Samson has scored 203 runs at a rate of 9.23 runs per innings. His next knocks have been 111, 109*, 97*, 57 and 82. He scored a total of 456 runs in those five innings at an average of 91.2 runs per innings, at a strike rate of 211.11.
Cricket is a game of uncertainties, and there is no guarantee that every poor run from Samson will end this way. However, the latest 82-run knock adds to a long list of comeback knocks Sanju Samson has delivered whenever outside noise around his spot in the team has grown.