How Delhi cricket’s rejection shaped Sanju Samson’s resilience

Kolkata, Monday – The night sky above Eden Gardens was still crackling when Sanju Samson settled into the press-conference chair, helmet by his side and 97 not out blazing fresh on the scoreboard. The innings that carried India into the T20 World Cup semifinal had taken only 50 balls, yet the journey behind it, Samson confessed, had been anything but swift. “Had lots of ups and downs,” he said, voice low, almost apologetic. “I kept doubting myself, thinking will I ever make it?”

It was an admission rare in modern sport, where bravado is currency. Across 60 T20I appearances Samson has been compelled to watch another 100 matches in civvies, a stop-start cycle that has broken many careers. Instead of resentment, he chose research. From the dugout he studied Virat Kohli’s lane control, Rohit Sharma’s tempo shifts, MS Dhoni’s end-game calculus. “I noticed how they change their game according to situations,” he told reporters, crediting the masters for the calm that oozed through his 97* against West Indies in the virtual quarter-final.

The roots of that composure lie far from the Eden roar, in the police colony at GTB Nagar, North Delhi. Samson’s father, Samson Viswanathan, a former Delhi Santosh-Trophy defender and constable, still remembers the day an 11-year-old boy trudged home in tears after scoring more than 500 runs in eight school matches yet missing Delhi’s U-13 squad. “He came crying to me that day,” Viswanathan says. On another scorching afternoon, as father watched son net, a passer-by mocked, “Planning to get your son into the Sri Lankan team?” The elder Samson’s reply was simple: “People say a lot of things. As a parent, it is my job to give the best for my son.”

Realising Delhi’s Ranji gates were bolted, the family took voluntary retirement and relocated to Thiruvananthapuram, trading scepticism for anonymity. Away from the sniggers, Sanju rebuilt technique and mind. Kerala fast bowler MD Nidheesh, watching Sunday’s assault, saw the same serenity the batter displayed while hammering three centuries against South Africa in 2024. “Against the West Indies he looked incredibly calm,” Nidheesh says.

The calm was manufactured. Forty-eight hours before the Eden encounter Samson initiated what he calls a “mental reset”: phone off, social media off, world tuned out. “I just listened to myself,” he told broadcaster Parthiv Patel. The boy once rejected in a Delhi junior trial had tuned out the noise and tuned in his talent, steering India to a World Cup semifinal and, perhaps, finally answering the question that haunted him for years: yes, he does belong.