Dropping Sanju Samson from the playing eleven during the T20I series in England was probably the toughest decision Gautam Gambhir has taken since taking over the reins as the head coach of the India National Cricket Team.
On September 24, speaking to JioStar ahead of India's home season against the West Indies, Gautam Gambhir revealed his personal thoughts on the decision to snub Sanju Samson from the playing combination against England for the young prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
During the conversation, Gautam Gambhir claimed that in his two-year stint as Team India head coach, the night after axing Samson from the playing combination was the hardest for him; a sleepless night. The keeper-batter was the Player of the tournament during the 2026 T20I World Cup. The top order's timely form in the knock-out stage of the tournament propelled India to lift the trophy earlier this year.
Samson, whose see a lot of highs and lows throughout his career, went out of runs during India's tour of the United Kingdom. In the first match of the T20I series against England, he failed to fire again, which resulted in his axing from the playing lineup. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi handed his T20 International cap in place of Sanju Samson.
Dropping Sanju Samson was the toughest decision in Gautam Gambhir's coaching career.
Gambhir, in his explanation, mentioned that dropping a player like Sanju Samson, who played a major role in Team India's T20 World Cup triumph, was not an easy decision, for dropping him only for producing a few underwhelming knocks.
"In two years of my journey, that was the only night I could not sleep, and I told this to Sanju because I knew that it was probably the toughest decision in my coaching tenure in a T20 format because someone who was player of the tournament, and then you have to leave him out after three or four games," Gautam Gambhir said.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was in form when Sanju Samson was off
In the same discussion, the head coach further stated that he communicated with Samson to let khim now about his decision to place Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the playing XI. Gambhir made the change only to secure a win with a strong start at the top of the innings. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was then in stunning form, which forced the head coach to take the serious call.
"Because ultimately you are there and when you are playing for India, or when you are coaching India, you want to win every series possible. I had a very, very honest conversation with him, and I told him that that is one of the reasons why, because Vaibhav was in that kind of form, and we needed someone to score runs at the top; we needed that little bit of a platform at the top as well. And he was fine with it. And that's a conversation which me and I had, and he took it in good spirits," said Gambhir.
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