India head coach Gautam Gambhir opened up on the decision to drop Sanju Samson shortly after a triumphant T20 World Cup run, following their 3-0 series win over Afghanistan in Delhi on Thursday.
Samson came into the series after briefly losing his spot to teenage Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. He only featured in four games during the tour to Ireland and England and was subsequently snubbed for the Zimbabwe tour, where Sooryavanshi emerged as the highest run-scorer.
However, India reinstated Samson back at the top of the order with Abhishek Sharma against Afghanistan, leaving Sooryavanshi on the bench. While Samson fell cheaply in the first innings, the Kerala batter bounced back with successive half-centuries.
Gambhir said dropping Samson was the toughest decision of his coaching career so far. “I think Samson showed what he is capable of. Someone doesn’t become Player Of The Tournament in the World Cup without having talent, so he has done enough. Obviously, it was tough- probably the toughest decision I have taken in my coaching career, was leaving him out of that England series because of the way he had performed before that,” said Gambhir.
“But again, sometimes you go with the players form as well. From my point of view, I wanted to go back to the combination we had during the World Cup, because those guys after three or four failures, don’t become bad players. If a team that has gone from one World Cup to another one unbeaten and has won the World Cup. Suddenly, it has become a team after one series and these guys not become bad players,” added Gambhir.
Gambhir affirmed that Samson was always ahead in the composition of the squad and added that Sooryavanshi will have to wait for his chances.
“But again, sometimes you go with the players form as well. From my point of view, I wanted to go back to the combination we had during the World Cup, because those guys after three or four failures, don’t become bad players. If a team that has gone from one World Cup to another one unbeaten and has won the World Cup. Suddenly, it has become a team after one series and these guys not become bad players,” Gambhir added.
India’s T20I side will now turn their focus to Japan, where they will face the hosts in a one-off game on September 22, before starting their Asian Games campaign.