Kamal Ghorui
Moments after Sanju Samson played the defining knock of his life, a regal 50-ball 97* against West Indies in a virtual quarterfinal of the T20 World Cup at the Eden Gardens on Sunday, he made a disarming admission. “Had lots of ups and downs,” Sanju said at the post-match press conference. “I kept doubting myself thinking will I ever make it?”
It was a far cry from the chest-thumping, “I-always-belonged-here” monologues that often follow such knocks. Instead, Sanju spoke of lingering self doubts.He has featured in 60 T20Is and sat out in another 100 games. Such a stop-start career can affect a player’s morale. Others may have allowed bitterness to seep in, but Sanju’s candour stood out as much as his strokeplay.From the sidelines, he said he studied how greats construct an innings and how they bend a chase to their will. “I’ve been playing this format for many years. Learned from greats like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni. I’ve noticed how they change their game according to situations.”Long before the floodlights of Eden Gardens found him, Sanju was a boy growing up in the police colony in North Delhi’s GTB Nagar. His father, Samson Viswanathan — a former footballer who represented Delhi in the Santosh Trophy — served as a Delhi Police constable.In one Delhi junior tournament, Sanju scored over 500 runs from eight games and did not make it to the U-13 side. “He came crying to me that day,” his father would recall.On another sweltering afternoon, as Samson watched his son train, a passerby sneered, “Planning to get your son into the Sri Lankan team?”“People say a lot of things. As a parent, it is my job to give the best for my son,” Samson tells TOI.Breaking into Delhi’s Ranji Trophy team, Samson realised, would be an uphill climb. He took voluntary retirement and returned to Thiruvananthapuram. Away from noise and sniggers, Sanju rebuilt his game.Kerala pacer MD Nidheesh cannot stop gushing over Sanju’s innings. “Against the West Indies, he looked incredibly calm. It reminded me of the three centuries he scored against South Africa in 2024.”Sanju spoke about engaging in “mental reset” before the West Indies game.“I switched off my phone, switched off social media and just listened to myself,” he told Parthiv Patel in an interview to the local broadcaster. The boy who was once rejected from Delhi’s junior team took India to the T20 World Cup semifinal.
