Virat Kohli's Hyderabad knock inspires Sanju Samson in his century against Bengal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the last few weeks, Sanju Samson must have been through a lot of mixed emotions. His performances for India 'A' and a record double ton in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Kerala opened the doors to the India squad after a long wait of four years.
However, despite being part of the squads for the T20I series against Bangladesh and West Indies, the wicketkeeper-batsman did not get to add to his sole international cap.He had to warm the bench for six matches in a row, perceived as an injustice by many.
After missing Kerala's Ranji Trophy opener against Delhi, Sanju has now returned and put his best foot forward to keep being in national contention with a century against Bengal here on Tuesday. The 116 off 182 balls was an uncharacteristic knock by Sanju, one in which he had to shelve his instinct and play attritional cricket for long periods.
"Adaptability was the key on this wicket," said Sanju. "Initially, there was good movement off the wicket and in the air. I was playing and missing a lot in my first 50-odd balls and I did not think I would score a hundred. Then Virat (Kohli) bhai's 91 in the T20 against West Indies in Hyderabad came to my mind. He was struggling at the beginning but he stayed there and played a big knock and I thought I would do the same and fight it out there," he said.
"It was not the usual way I bat. This is probably the first time I'm playing such an innings. It feels good when you know you can adapt and play according to the situation. Robin (Uthappa) bhai's presence at the other end was also crucial. He guided me through that partnership," said Sanju who became the sixth Kerala batsman to reach 3000 first-class runs. Sachin Baby, who reached the landmark in the last game, Rohan Prem, Sunil Oasis, VA Jagadeesh, Sreekumar Nair are the other batsmen from the state in the 3000-club.
Changing from white-ball to red-ball in a short period was a challenge, said Sanju. "From the IPL, I have constantly been playing limited-overs cricket and it takes time to switch from the shorter formats to the longer format. But the good thing was that I was able to make changes on the go during the game itself at the crease," said Sanju who reckoned anything above 300 would be a great score on the Thumba track. Kerala were 227/7 at stumps on day one.
Sanju knows that good start such as this to the first-class season would only make his case stronger for an India berth but he is not fretting about such things. "Selections and team combinations are not in my hand. I'm in the best phase of my career now. If you look at the Indian team, so many good players are sitting out. My only intention is to stay in touch and keep scoring runs and contribute for my team, said the 25-year-old.