'Not a robot, but used to tough calls': Samson on Sooryavanshi competition, relentless scrutiny and the fight for his place in XI
toi
newspoint|17-09-2026
NEW DELHI: The ‘inconsistent’ tag has long followed Sanju Samson . He made his T20I debut as a 20-year-old in 2015 but his place in the Indian team is never assured. On Tuesday night, after scoring his first half-century since the dream run in the T20 World Cup in March, Samson highlighted the difficulty of achieving consistency with a high-risk approach necessary in T20Is.
“You can’t control the consistency in the result in this format. Consistency has to be in the frame of mind. I think that’s what ‘fearless mindset’ is called,” Samson said after scoring a 57 off 22 that helped India seal the series against Afghanistan here. The last T20I of the series will be played on Thursday.
With India’s T20I team boasting of three other equally destructive openers — Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi — Samson’s place in the team is always under scrutiny. Two months ago, he was benched in England when Sooryavanshi played ahead of him. Samson, who will be 32 years old in another two months, said the experience of taking hard calls as an IPL captain helped him understand the team management’s position on Sooryavanshi.
“It’s not easy to run an Indian team. A 15-year-old boy has scored 700-800 runs in the IPL . My World Cup was before that. He had to come in some or the other manner,” he said. “I didn’t perform in 2-3 games and he was in form and we wanted to win games in that series. I have been in this situation and I have taken tough calls as a captain in the IPL.”
Samson, however, did concede that he gets affected at times. “At first, it feels bad. I am not a machine. I am not a robot. It definitely matters. And you kind of get a bit affected. But then you try to talk to yourself and tell that what you are and what you need to do,” he said.
“I try to turn off the Wi-Fi. But sometimes the Wi-Fi turns on and I see the comments of the senior players,” Samson said of the endless debate over his spot in the XI. “It’s their choice. They can use a positive frame of sentences or they can use a negative frame of sentences. I think I am experienced enough to handle it.”
“You can’t control the consistency in the result in this format. Consistency has to be in the frame of mind. I think that’s what ‘fearless mindset’ is called,” Samson said after scoring a 57 off 22 that helped India seal the series against Afghanistan here. The last T20I of the series will be played on Thursday.
With India’s T20I team boasting of three other equally destructive openers — Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi — Samson’s place in the team is always under scrutiny. Two months ago, he was benched in England when Sooryavanshi played ahead of him. Samson, who will be 32 years old in another two months, said the experience of taking hard calls as an IPL captain helped him understand the team management’s position on Sooryavanshi.
“It’s not easy to run an Indian team. A 15-year-old boy has scored 700-800 runs in the IPL . My World Cup was before that. He had to come in some or the other manner,” he said. “I didn’t perform in 2-3 games and he was in form and we wanted to win games in that series. I have been in this situation and I have taken tough calls as a captain in the IPL.”
Samson, however, did concede that he gets affected at times. “At first, it feels bad. I am not a machine. I am not a robot. It definitely matters. And you kind of get a bit affected. But then you try to talk to yourself and tell that what you are and what you need to do,” he said.
“I try to turn off the Wi-Fi. But sometimes the Wi-Fi turns on and I see the comments of the senior players,” Samson said of the endless debate over his spot in the XI. “It’s their choice. They can use a positive frame of sentences or they can use a negative frame of sentences. I think I am experienced enough to handle it.”
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