“I will remove you from the team only if you have scored 21 ducks” - Sanju Samson reveals Gautam Gambhir’s words

The Indian T20I team witnessed a lot of changes to its playing XI since the retirements of the veteran duo Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma after the T20 World Cup 2024, which India went on to win against South Africa in the grand finale.

Indian keeper-batter Sanju Samson, in his candid conversation with former Indian spinner Ravi Ashwin, has revealed how the Indian T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav approached him about a huge opportunity of playing the seven lined-up games for Team India.

Moreover, Samson also revealed how the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir motivated him after the keeper-batter bagged two consecutive ducks in Sri Lanka. He added that Gambhir’s words inspired him to do well as he went on to score three centuries against Bangladesh and South Africa.

"Suddenly, the change happened after the T20 World Cup. Gautam bhai came in, Surya came in as captain. I was playing a Duleep Trophy game in Andhra. Surya was playing in the other team. That's where Surya told me, 'Chetta, there is a huge opportunity coming up for you. We have seven games lined up, and I am going to give you all seven games as an opener'. Hearing that from the captain's mouth itself, that felt great," Sanju Samson said in a candid conversation with Ravi Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel.

"Then I played two matches in Sri Lanka after that, I was out for ducks in both matches. The memories of being in and out of the team started flooding in, and I thought that was it. I was a bit down in the dressing room, and Gauti bhai saw it. he came up to me, and asked what happened, I told him I did not capitalise on the chance that I got. He was like, 'So? I will remove you from the team only if you have scored 21 ducks'," he added.

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