NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND: There comes a time in every man’s life when he must stand up to authority, follow his heart and take the course that suits him best. For he is not following a law set by others who have feared to tread on paths hitherto unknown to mankind; he is merely following his own law, that law which shall shield him in times of pain and duress.
Such a time has come for Sanju Samson. Merely three matches after having single-handedly won India the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the wicketkeeper-batter was excluded from the squad that will tour Zimbabwe later this month. In the culture of fearmongering and environment of distrust that head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar have proliferated, Samson is another honest man to lose his means of making a living.
Unfortunate as it seems, Samson’s worth is decided solely by men whose priorities are ambiguous, whose ethics are vague and whose morals might as well have taken a tumble in the River Trent, beside which India play England on July 7. Suryakumar Yadav, who led India to the T20 World Cup, was the first casualty of this culture where experience meant antiquity, and he is now followed by Sanju Samson.
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Sanju Samson was the Player of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026
Among the men who have taken the bold call of omitting the Player of the Tournament of the T20 World Cup are those who would have feared to stand up to him in times of good fortune. The signs were visible even during the multination tournament earlier this year – Samson was called into the playing XI, almost as if being bestowed a favour, only after having been left out of four out of the nine games India played.
That he scored 321 runs in those five innings at an impressive average of 80 and a godlike strike rate of nearly 200 speaks volumes about the class that the Kerala man possesses. And yet, Gautam Gambhir and Agarkar appear content to leave him out after just three poor showings against Ireland and England (5, 0 and 1), conveniently forgetting the service that Sanju Samson rendered to the nation in its time of need.
Gautam Gambhir and Agarkar can be called nothing but materialistic. They needed Samson to fish them out of the troubled waters they were in during the T20 World Cup, where the experiment with Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma as openers failed miserably. Fans should be expected to question India’s continued faith in Abhishek Sharma, who scored a mere 141 runs in the eight innings he played at the T20 World Cup (of which 51 came in the final).
Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar used Sanju Samson for their selfish needs and then discarded him
Answers that the Gautam Gambhir-Agarkar duo are unwilling to give surround the Punjab batter the most. Scoring three ducks in a row in the tournament, and boasting a temperament that would make Virender Sehwag look cautious, the curious case of Abhishek Sharma must be studied, especially at a time when the management decided to discard India’s man of the hour, Samson.
And yet, none of these problems should surround Sanju Samson, for whom the only honourable thing left is to retire and choose not to play for India ever again. Or at least till sharks such as Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar still abound. Sanju Samson’s exclusion is India’s deepest loss at this hour of uncertainty, when they have just been whitewashed 0-2 by Ireland. His grief must be shared by every cricket fan in the country.
The immature experiments that hold our nation hostage must be put to a stop, with fans calling for nothing short of resignation letters from Gautam Gambhir and Agarkar. Until such a time comes – and come it will, for time and tide wait for no man, least of all for those with cryptic moral compasses – Sanju Samson’s best course of action is to stay away from a setup that rewards sycophancy and punishes brilliance. Whether India have left Samson out or not is immaterial; he must leave India out.
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