India wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson has revealed how a special message from head coach Gautam Gambhir during a challenging phase, transformed his international career.
Notably, Samson’s international career has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Despite making his India debut at the age of 20, the talented batter never got the consistent run to show his ability.
However, things changed for Sanju after Gambhir became India’s new head coach post the 2024 T20 World Cup. Under Gambhir’s coaching tenure, Sanju has batted at the top in the T20Is and has been very successful for India in the last few series.
In a candid chat with Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel, Samson opened up about his disappointing performance in Sri Lanka, where he registered poor scores against Sri Lanka. However, Gambhir instilled belief in him with a powerful message in the dressing room.
“So, suddenly, the change happened after the T20 World Cup. So Gautam bhai came in, and Surya came in as the captain. I was playing a Duleep Trophy game in Andhra. Surya was playing for the other team. He told me, ‘There is a good opportunity coming up for you. We have seven games lined up, and I am going to give you all seven games as an opener’,” Samson told Ashwin.
“The words coming out from the captain’s mouth itself actually felt, Oh wow, great. I played two games in Sri Lanka but was unable to score runs. I was a bit down in the dressing room, and Gautam bhai came up to me and asked what had happened.
I said, ‘After a long time, I got a chance, but I failed to capitalise’. He said, ‘So what? I’ll drop you if you register 21 ducks’. That’s the word which he used. That kind of confidence from the captain and the coach has definitely raised my confidence. That really helped me to go out there and perform,” he added.
Samson has played 42 T20Is for India so far, scoring 861 runs at an average of 25.32 and a strike rate of 152.38. He has scored three centuries and two fifties in international T20Is so far.