When Gautam Gambhir named Sanju Samson as the best young batsman in India

Team India’s current head coach, Gautam Gambhir, once said that Sanju Samson was the best young batter in India. The statement has come into the limelight after the keeper-batter was snubbed from the ODI team for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. He's been selected for T20Is though.

Samson smashed his maiden century when he last played in an ODI match against South Africa in December 2023. Batting at No. 3, the Rajasthan Royals captain scored 108 runs off 114 balls in the series decider, which helped the Men in Blue post 296 runs on the board. Team India then went on to win the match by 78 runs.

Recently, the right-handed batter played a crucial inning in the last T20I against Zimbabwe. At one stage, India were 40/3. He then handled the innings, scoring 58 off 45 balls as India put up a decent total of 167 and eventually won the game by 42 runs.

Gautam Gambhir wrote in a tweet on September 22, 2020:

"Sanju Samson is not just the best wicket-keeper batsmen in India but the best young batsman in India! Anyone up for debate?"

Former Indian batter Dodda Ganesh criticized the decision to leave the keeper-batter and include Shivam Dube, tweeting:

"Shivam Dube in place of Sanju Samson in the ODIs is ridiculous. Poor Sanju scored a century in his last series against SA. Why him always? My heart goes out to this young man."

Samson has scored 510 runs at an average of 56.6 in 16 ODIs for India.

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Rohit Sharma to lead in ODIs, while Surya named captain in T20Is as the Gautam Gambhir era begins

On Tuesday, July 9, Gautam Gambhir was announced as the head coach of India’s men's cricket team. The Gautam Gambhir era will begin with the three-match T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka, starting on July 27.

On July 18, the Team India squad was announced for both series, with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli returning for ODIs. Suryakumar Yadav has been named as the new T20I captain for India, while Shubman Gill has been made the vice-captain in both formats.

T20I Squad, beginning July 27: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, and Mohammed Siraj.

ODI Squad, starting August 2: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, and Harshit Rana.