While Sanju Samson seems to have finally cemented a place in the Indian T20I XI following a string of terrific performances – he became the first Indian to his back-to-back centuries in T20Is – there still remains some bitterness in those close to the player regarding the delay in seeing the wicket-keeper become a regular in the team.
In a heated video that is going viral, Sanju’s father, Samson Vishwanath, can be heard digging into the Indian team leadership and management of years past for ‘ruining’ his son’s cricket career.
In an explosive interview with Malayali news station MediaOne, Vishwanath dug into the figures he saw as the culprits for preventing Samson’s breakthrough in the past.
“There are 3-4 people who wasted 10 years of my son’s vital career…captains like Dhoni ji, Virat ji, Rohit ji and coach Dravid ji,” he said, blaming former captains MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and coach Rahul Dravid.
‘Wasted 10 years of my son’s life…’
Samson made his T20I debut all the way back in 2015, at the age of 21, being seen as a promising and extremely talented player in domestic short-form cricket. However, a lack of consistency and batters such as Rohit and Kohli themselves blocking a route into the team saw Samson only re-enter the fold in 2021, after beginning to show a greater maturity and growth in recent seasons of the IPL.
“These four people wasted 10 years of my son’s life but the more they hurt him, the stronger Sanju came out of the crisis,” argued his father, clearly displeased by the time it took Samson, now 30 years of age, to become a regular.
Samson now looks to be in pole position to be India’s T20 opener following the dual retirements of Kohli and Sharma following the T20 World Cup win earlier this year. His back-to-back centuries against Bangladesh and South Africa seem to have announced his intentions to remain in that position.
Samson’s father also credited new captain Suryakumar Yadav and coach Gautam Gambhir for providing Samson the chance, although he did get a chance in 14 T20Is in 2022 and 2023.
Samson faced criticism in his youth for showing inconsistency, with a general perception that while he started IPL seasons strongly, he would often lose that form as the tournament wore on. However, since receiving captaincy of the Rajasthan Royals, Samson has gone from strength to strength. He has scored at least 450 runs in three of the last four seasons.
As a player now providing match-winning performances to back up the immense talent on show, Samson looks set to be the future of India’s opening batting in T20 cricket for years to come.
