Finally Sanju Samson’s moment of clarity? India’s T20 'opener' looks to rise above a year of role confusion

Sanju Samson has forever been in queue. His selection in India's T20 World Cup team as an opener is his moment, at the age of 31 after nearly a decade of debates on him finding a definite place in India's XI. Clearly this moment has not come without any chaos.

Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

The call looks strategically on point, especially after his exploits at the top of the order in Shubman Gill's absence after the T20 World Cup in 2024. Yet, all Samson got in reward was utter confusion in 2025.




And it's not just Samson. Over the past three years, the Indian team management seemed to have struggled to zero in on their wicketkeeper in T20Is. Managements have changed, but the musical chairs between Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Samson and Ishan Kishan continued. Jitesh Sharma was the latest addition to that list, till he too was not picked for the World Cup early next year in India and Sri Lanka.

The selectors and team management had locked Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal as their T20I openers after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired from the format. Neither Gill nor Jaiswal are now in the T20 World Cup team.

The management ceded to Abhishek Sharma's brutal hitting abilities at the top of the order while Jaiswal was away on Test duties, it abstained from giving the same freedom to Samson once Gill became available for T20Is. That Samson had superior numbers than even Abhishek in the period they batted together, was conveniently ignored.

After the last IPL, the word spread that the team management wanted the wicketkeeper to bat down the order. And Samson was again thrown out of his comfort zone despite captain Suryakumar Yadav assuring him complete backing at top of the order last year.

In this period, there were suggestions that he struggled outside the powerplay and against top-notch pace. But then, none of the other wicketkeepers in contention could command a place based on the numbers. Ishan Kishan, brought in as the second wicketkeeper after two years at the expense of Jitesh, has a lower strike-rate and average than even Pant.

After a stirring comeback in the last T20I against South Africa in Ahmedabad on Friday, Samson was put in a spot when the broadcasters asked him if he was going to open from here on. “Please don't put me in such positions,” a coy Samson replied after maintaining that he understood the team management's call in the previous matches.


“To be fair to him, he only got to play if someone was rested or with the second-string sides. One felt he was trying too hard to impress and outdo himself,” former India batting coach Vikram Rathour had told TOI last Nov before mentioning how Samson has become calm and stopped complaining even when he sat out of the XI during the last T20 World Cup.

The team management had the chance to have absolute clarity around wicketkeepers once Samson found his calling as an opener. But they deviated from him before pivoting back to him at the last moment.

Now, with Surya claiming that the team management isn't bothered about the left-right combinations, there could potentially be another twist to the Samson tale.

For all his prowess, Samson has always been the dispensable one. After long, there is some clarity around a wicketkeeper in the T20Is setup. It's for both Samson and the team management to have some consistency of thought and put the debate to rest, at least till the runup to the T20 World Cup.


Get an chance to win ₹5000 Amazon Voucher by taking part in India's Biggest Habit Index! Take the survey here