Gautam Gambhir has revealed how Sanju Samson reacted to being left out of India’s T20I XI for teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, admitting that the decision was the toughest call he has made during his time in charge of the format. Samson had entered the England series as India’s Player of the Tournament from their ICC T20 World Cup triumph. Yet after the opening match of the five-game series, the experienced wicketkeeper-batsman was dropped.

Gambhir said the decision weighed heavily on him, but revealed that Samson handled the setback positively following a frank conversation between the two.

Gambhir Reveals Why Samson Was Dropped

Reflecting on the difficult selection call, Gautam Gambhir admitted that it was the one decision during his coaching stint that left him unable to sleep.

"In two years of my journey, that was the only night I could not sleep and I told this to Sanju because I knew that it was probably the toughest decision in my coaching tenure in the T20 format because someone who was Player of the Tournament, and then you have to leave him out after three or four games. And the reason was probably that Vaibhav was in that kind of form as well, and we had to win the series."

The India coach said he personally explained the reasoning behind the decision to Samson, stressing that the team wanted an aggressive presence at the top and believed Sooryavanshi’s form could provide that.

Samson Took The Decision In Good Spirits

According to Gambhir, Samson did not react negatively to the call and accepted the team management’s reasoning after their discussion.

"I had a very, very honest conversation with him and I told him that that is one of the reasons why, because Vaibhav was in that kind of form, and we needed someone to score runs at the top, we needed that little bit of a platform at the top as well. And he was fine with it. And that's a conversation which me and Sanju had, and he took it in good spirits,"

The decision ultimately did not produce the results India had hoped for.

Sooryavanshi struggled during his much-anticipated debut series against England, while India went on to lose the series even after Samson was reinstated for the final match.