‘I was trying to avoid eye contact with Gautam Gambhir’ - Sanju Samson on failing to convert chances

Sanju Samson was part of India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 but didn’t get an opportunity to feature in the playing XI. Even after the tournament, he received a handful of chances but failed to capitalize on them. Despite so, the keeper-batter was called up for the series against Bangladesh and the team management assured him of playing all three games, especially with Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal rested.

Samson failed to convert in the first two games, scoring 29 and 10 runs respectively. During that phase, the cricketer revealed that he couldn’t make eye contact with head coach Gautam Gambhir, who showed enormous faith in him. Samson added that the relationship between a player and a coach is extremely vital and was elated to see Gambhir clapping for him after scoring a century in the third T20I against Bangladesh.

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“A player’s relationship with his coach is quite important,” Samson told journalist Vimal Kumar in an interview on his YouTube channel.

“When you get the coach’s backing, you want to repay the faith with performances. It was my wish to make him happy for all the chances I was being given. So when I was out early in one-odd match, I was trying to avoid eye contact with him and waiting for my chance. So really happy when I struck a century and Gauti bhai was clapping for me,” Samson said further. 

There was pressure to perform in third T20I: Samson

After flopping in the first two T20Is, Samson revealed that there was pressure on him, especially as there are multiple cricketers waiting in the wings to take his spot. The Kerala-born player added saying he has now learned to deal with pressure and focused to control what was possible for him.

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“There was pressure (to perform in Hyderabad),” Samson said. “Definitely thought about what happened in Sri Lanka, what will happen in the future, it’s quite normal to speculate. Sometimes you do get lost in your thoughts even while batting you are under pressure. I have learned to handle pressure with experience and speaking to others. On the other hand, I knew these thoughts are pretty normal. I only focused on what I can do, the controllables and how well I can contribute for the team once set,” Samson added.