Has Sanju Samson Changed The Negative Narrative?

Has Sanju Samson put an end to the narrative that often questioned his place in the men in blue Twenty20 team, especially after the arrival of teenage prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi?  Known for his breezy knocks in the first six-over powerplay and even beyond, the right-handed one-person demolition squad is currently in the second-best phase of his career in the shortest form of the game, with a collection of 770 runs in 26 innings at 10.87 an over, including the 33-ball 67 with 8x 4s and 4x 6s against New Zealand in Christchurch.  His best was two years ago when he made 436 runs in 12 innings at 10.81 an over. Samson went through a lean phase in 2025, scoring just 222 runs in 11 innings. Samson has been erratic even after a brilliant run of 97*, 89 and 89 in the last three matches of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in February-March this year; 5 x 50s in 16 innings after the World Cup final against New Zealand in Ahmedabad. Samson has somewhat changed the trend with three half-centuries in the last five internationals against the West Indies and New Zealand. Whenever he has scored 40+ runs, India has won 13 matches. These are not great numbers, but when one looks at the 1126 runs he and Abhay Sharma have amassed for the first wicket – India’s third best after Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma’s 1743 and KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma’s 1412 – one can understand the value of his hitting in the first half of the innings. Samson has struck 158x 4s and 107x 6s – only the sixth Indian to smash 100 + 6s – and it is his boundary-hitting consistency and quality that have made him an asset at the top.