It has always been difficult to make a place in the Indian cricket team, but currently the competition has reached its peak in the T20 format. During the T20 World Cup 2026, there was tremendous competition for the opening slot in Team India and now Sanju Samson himself spoke openly on this.

Sanju Samson admitted that after seeing Ishan Kishan’s excellent form, he started feeling that his place could be in danger. The special thing was that Samson accepted this with complete honesty on camera.

While talking to Abhinav Mukund in CSK Podcast, Sanju said that Ishan Kishan had made a comeback in Team India after working hard in domestic cricket. He told that the last two years were not easy for Ishaan, because he remained out of the Indian team for a long time. But despite this he did not give up and continued scoring runs.

Sanju said, ‘To be honest, Ishan Kishan suddenly came back to the team. He performed brilliantly in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy, made Jharkhand the champion and with his hard work again reached Team India.

He further said, ‘We players always look at ourselves.

Samson told another interesting thing. He said that after seeing Ishan Kishan’s century in Thiruvananthapuram, he had told himself that maybe now Ishan should get the chance.

Sanju said, ‘When he scored a century in Thiruvananthapuram, I said to myself – Sanju, let him go now, this boy deserves more. You got chances but you could not score runs. On the other hand, that player continues to be in excellent form.

There was a lot of discussion regarding team selection in T20 World Cup 2026. Ishan Kishan returned to the team, while T20 team vice-captain Shubman Gill had to sit out. Sanju Samson was also struggling with poor form in the beginning and was dropped from the playing eleven in the middle of the tournament. During that time, Ishan Kishan took the responsibility of opening along with Abhishek Sharma.

However, everything went great for India at the end of the tournament. In the final, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma all scored half-centuries and Team India defeated New Zealand and won the T20 World Cup for the third time in history.