While all the limelight was on Abhishek Sharma and his record-breaking 30-ball century in the third T20I against Afghanistan, India’s other opener made another quiet statement of his own. Sanju Samson, dropped after a string of failures on the UK and Ireland tour despite being Player of the Tournament at India’s T20 World Cup win earlier this year, returned to the XI for the Afghanistan series and answered with 117 runs in three matches, including two fifties, at a strike rate of 180.
For head coach Gautam Gambhir, though, all those individual numbers on the scoreboard matter much less than the team’s numbers. “It’s not about the 100 that he [Abhishek] scored today. I can sit here and keep talking about his 100. But it’s just the impact. The only thing that we talk in the dressing room is about how much impact can we create with the bat and how much impact can we create with the ball. And that has been our ideology, that has been our philosophy since the last two years. T20 cricket is not about runs or wickets. It’s about how much impact can you create.
“And for both Sanju and Abhishek, I think you can easily sit here and say one got a 50 and the other one got a 100. But for me, I think the biggest positive was when we got a 100 in the Powerplay. That we have never done in my coaching tenure. So I think that was a very clear message that if you’re going hard, just keep going hard. That is what the message and that is exactly the message going to be in the future as well – that we still haven’t reached 300 [innings score]. So that’s probably the next target because the kind of talent we have in the dressing room, we should be doing some incredible things.”
That framing of judging impact rather than numbers ran through everything Gambhir had to say when dissecting Samson’s interesting year. “I think his talent itself is enough for him to be in the dressing room,” Gambhir said. “Someone doesn’t become a player of the tournament in a World Cup without not having a talent. So, he’s done enough.
“Obviously, it was tough [leaving him out in the UK]. Probably the toughest decision I’ve taken in my coaching tenure is obviously leaving him out in that England series. Because obviously, the way he’s performed before that. But again, sometimes you go with players’ form as well.”
Gambhir explained that the plan all along had been to return to the World Cup-winning combination. “We were always very clear. From my point of view, I was very clear that we want to go back to the combination that we had during the World Cup. Because those guys, after three or four failures, do not become bad players. And the kind of cricket we’ve played, if a team that has gone unbeaten from one World Cup to the other World Cup and has won the World Cup, I’m sure it’s a gun team. Suddenly, it doesn’t become a bad team after one or two series. And these guys do not become bad players after two or three failures. That is what these guys have shown here as well.”
Samson’s recall meant teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had to make way. Gambhir framed it as an exercise of patience rather than a setback for the 15-year-old. “From Vaibhav’s point of view, it was again a very clear conversation that he has to wait for his opportunity. We know the kind of talent he has. We know what he can do. But again, someone who’s done extremely well over a period of two years, obviously, will always be ahead of someone who’s just got into the team.
“So, whenever he gets that run, he will get a longer run as well. And that is what Indian cricket is all about. We want competition. We want that talent in the dressing room. But that’s how cricket goes. Whether you’re a 15-year-old or a 30-year-old, when you have to wait for your opportunity, you have to wait for your opportunity.”