Sanju Samson's T20 career can be, sort of best described as consistently inconsistent. Even with repeated calls for the team management to give him an extended run, the wicketkeeper batter has still received plenty of chances.
Still, his outings keep swinging between brilliance and disappointment, with almost no real middle ground, you know what I mean.
Apart from the T20 World Cup 2026, Samson has never managed to score more than 20 runs in three straight T20 internationals. That kind of stat is hard to brush aside. He was pretty outstanding during the ICC tournament, and he took home the Player of the Tournament honour after producing match winning knocks of 97*, 89, and 89 across the three knockout games.
But beyond that memorable campaign, Samson hasn’t actually held onto that same standard for any long stretch. Most seasoned international cricketers usually get an extended purple patch at some point in their careers, but for him it just hasn’t happened. Many folks figured the T20 World Cup would finally alter the narrative. It didn’t.
During the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, Samson managed two centuries and one half-century, but still ,he never really crossed that 500-run zone. Weirdly enough, after playing 14 IPL seasons he still hasn’t got over that particular milestone. It’s become the biggest question hanging over his career ,because it’s like he shows up close , then the season slips away again. He’ll get near the target over and over, yet somehow never lands the full thing across an entire campaign.
Despite all the obvious talent and 15 years inside professional cricket, Samson hasn’t been able to stitch it together in a consistent way. Against Ireland, he dragged a delivery back onto his stumps ,then fell to leg before wicket to the left-arm pacer Jai Moondra. The first ball angled away, while the next one jagged back in sharply, and that little change did him in.
There isn’t one clear technical mistake or a big, glaring weakness in his batting. The worry has always been steadiness ,or in other words, whether he can repeat it match after match. After managing 5 off 4 and 0 off 1 in Belfast, many folks expected Samson to rebound in Durham. The pressure was rising too, because Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who you could argue is one of the most destructive T20 openers, was waiting for his moment to break in.
The reason was pretty simple honestly. The team management didn’t want to drop either Samson or Ishan Kishan, like, both of them played key roles in India’s T20 World Cup run that ended up being successful and they kind of deserved a longer run. Still, Kishan has kept his rhythm going since coming back into the side. If you view the whole tournament as one picture, then he was probably India’s strongest showman across it all.
In the first T20I versus England, Samson looked a bit unusually careful. It’s not fully clear whether that was because he wasn’t used to the conditions, or if he was concerned about his position in the team. What really stood out was the missing bite, the sort of attacking intent that you normally expect. He never looked settled trying to take on the fielders. After grinding along for 1 off 6 balls, he finally went for one huge shot but ended up only slicing it straight to Tom Banton at backward point.
The innings had no real purpose or direction, and it was a bit like watching it from the sidelines. It was hard to make sense of what Samson was actually trying to do, or how long term it was meant to go. Getting out for a first ball duck is one thing, because a batter barely gets any time to settle in, but making only one run from seven deliveries on a pitch that gave bowlers not much to work with, then showing almost no attacking mindset, well that really brings up serious worries.
At this stage, it almost feels like yet another chapter in Samson’s long, rather trying run. His inconsistency has hurt him more than once before, yet this time it could end up being the priciest setback of the lot, period.