The video has gone viral where the father of wicket-keeper and opening batter of India, Sanju Samson, has accused the veterans of the Indian team, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, and the former head coach of the Blue Brigade, of spoiling 10 years of his career at the start. He feels that his son didn’t earn the number of chances he deserved at the beginning.
Sanju Samson made his debut for the Blue Brigade in 2015 when he collected 19 runs at a strike rate of around 80. The next game for the national side in the shortest format came in 2020, where he got six innings but could nail only 64 runs at a strike rate of around 140. The following year saw him getting 34 runs in three innings.
In 2022, there was a little change in the career graphics of the Kerala-born, when he drilled 179 runs in five innings at a strike rate of around 160. In 2023, there was another drop in his career, as he clubbed 78 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 127.87.
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The ongoing 2024 year has been another rollercoaster for Sanju Samson, who has gathered 327 T20I runs in 11 innings at an average of 32.70, at a strike rate of 175.61. Two centuries and one half-century have come beside his name, along with five ducks, two of which came on successive occasions against the Proteas.
MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma spoiled Sanju Samson? Vishwanath claims shocker
However, the comment of the opener’s father came after his son blasted second consecutive century in T20Is. The first of these came in Hyderabad against Bangladesh, while the second one was against the Rainbow nation in the opening of the four-match series.
“There are 3-4 people who wasted 10 years of my son’s vital career. Captains like Dhoni ji, Virat [Kohli] ji, Rohit [Sharma] ji, and coach [Rahul] Dravid ji. 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.” He expressed this during a Malayalam-language television channel Media One.
Vishwanath has also launched an attack towards the former World Cup-winning member and opening batter of the Indian side, Kris Srikkanth, for not praising the performances of Sanju Samson at any point in time.
“What hurt me badly was comments from [Kris Srikkanth], the player from Tamil Nadu. I don’t know what he has played. To this day, that individual has not spoken a good word of encouragement about my son, but has hurt him a lot with his words.” He remarked as saying by Sports Tak.
Sanju Samson has collected 701 T20I runs in 32 innings at an average of 24.17 and a strike rate of over 150 with the help of two half-centuries and two centuries at the best score of 111. Two games ago, he was fresh with 218 runs in two innings, but again went down after these comments went public with back-to-back ducks in Gqeberha and Centurion.
In the same interview, his father thanked the current head coach, Gautam Gambhir, and the T20I captain of the side, Suryakumar Yadav, for giving the wicket-keeper a new life in the game. He reckoned that his son would have again been left out if these two weren’t part of the team management.
“I want to thank Gautam Gambhir bhai and Suryakumar bhai. If these two people did not come at this time, they would have dropped him from the team like in the past.” Father of Sanju Samson concluded.
The final T20I game of the current four-match series will begin on November 15 at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.