For such a long time, Sanju Samson has been considered to be one of the unluckiest Indian players for the national side. Despite having so much quality, the right-handed batter wasn’t able to reap the rewards that would have helped him to retain his place in the national side for a long time.
Sanju Samson made his debut in the shortest format in 2015, where he cracked 19 runs. Later, in the next nine games of the 20-over format, the wicket-keeper batter could collect only 98 runs at an average of around 11 and a strike rate of nearly 110. The year 2022 saw a huge change in his batting when he drilled 179 runs in five innings at an average of 44.75 and a strike rate of 158.41 in T20Is.
But, again, the following year found him struggling to earn 78 runs in six innings at an average of 15.60 at a strike rate of 127.87. But the year 2024 has been the turning point of his career, especially in the shortest format of the game.
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Sanju Samson notched up 327 T20I runs in the ongoing year 2024 in just nine innings at an average of 40.88 and a strike rate of more than 180, shouldering on his two centuries and one half-century at the best score of 111.
During the opening T20I clash of the four-match series in South Africa, the opening batter became the first Indian batter to celebrate successive T20I centuries as he bashed the Protea bowlers for his superb knock of 107 runs in just 50 deliveries at a strike rate of 214, shouldering on seven boundaries and ten over boundaries.
Sanju Samson hailed highly by the former South Africa head coach
Under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, the management decided to offer the batter a longer rope in the format. He was recently retained by his long-time franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals, for the 2025 season of the event for a price of INR 17 crore.
The 30-year-old has gathered 701 runs in 30 T20I innings at an average of 25.96 and a strike rate of 152.06. Last season in the IPL, the Royals captain smashed 531 runs in 15 innings at an average of 48.27 and a strike rate of more than 153 with the help of five half-centuries thanks to the best score of 86 runs. Since the 2016 season of the tournament, he has smashed over 300 runs in each edition, and that too with a strike rate of over 135.
The former South African coach, Mark Boucher, questioned the tactics of the Protea captain Aiden Markram, who produced the spinners early on, but he was in awe of the batting of Sanju Samson.
“I think South Africa got their bowling combinations wrong. They gave the ball to spinners early on. If you are an Indian batter, who would you rather face at the start, a spinner or a pacer? But yeah, Samson, what a player.” The former wicket-keeper batter of the Rainbow Nation explained.
“To me, it is quite surprising that he has not played more games for India, and this might be what he needs, just a kick-on with a couple of good innings, and you can see how good he is to watch.” The veteran added during his interaction on Jio Cinema.
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Sanju Samson, who was adjusted as the player of the match for the victory, thanked his hard work over the last few years, besides showing the character.
“The amount of hard work he has put in over the last few years, doing the boring work, he is eating the fruits of that. He was in the 90s, but still, he was looking for a boundary, playing for the team, which shows the character of the man, and that’s what we look for.” The Kerala-born was highlighted in the post-match presentation.
