Indian dashing opening batter Sanju Samson has revealed that he just wants to enjoy the game and added that he has stopped chasing the national team selection just before the start of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign.
Speaking exclusively in an interview on JioHotstar, Samson went on to disclose that for the rest of his professional career on his own terms, having achieved a lot of success in his start-stop international career.
“I realised that there is a constant rat race in our country, and I decided before the 2026 T20 World Cup that I would not be part of it. I just want to enjoy the game. By God’s grace, I have achieved a lot. I am 31 now, and I have a few years left. So, I have decided to play on my own terms. No one will tell me how to bat or what to do. Sanju will decide for Sanju,” Samson said in a JioHotstar interview.
“With all due respect, I will play, enjoy the game, be a good teammate, and support the group, but I will do it my way. After the 2024 World Cup, I didn’t even expect to play in the 2026 World Cup. I wasn’t in the 14- or 15-man squad at one point. So how can I plan for 2028? If I’m there, if the team needs me, and if I’m playing well, things will fall into place. If not, I am deeply grateful. No one can take this achievement away from me,” he added.
Samson was part of the four matches on India’s poor tour to Ireland and England, scoring only 35 runs before being omitted from the T20I squad that toured Zimbabwe. Taking his spot, teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi paired up with Abhishek Sharma in the three-match Zimbabwe series.
“When you score runs for the Indian team, you become more responsible, knowing you have to keep scoring. Ahead of the T20 World Cup semi-final against England, our top order wasn’t firing much. A lot of people were coming and telling me, ‘It’s England, Archer is bowling, he got you out 3-4 times previously, this happened, that happened.’ But I was confident. I didn’t say anything out loud. If you talk too much, you come across as arrogant, and that goes against my belief. So, I just gestured quietly, ‘Yeah, we’ll see.’ But I had my plans ready. I knew that this Sanju Samson was not the Sanju Samson from a year ago. After that West Indies knock, I had a lot of self-validation, and I was very sure about myself. There was no room for doubt. I was going to do it for my country, and no one could stop it,” he noted.
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