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India vs Afghanistan 2026 2nd T20: Team India opener Sanju Samson answered his critics on Tuesday in the second T20I match against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Samson smashed 57 in 22 balls to set up India’s second-successive seven-wicket win over the Afghans to help take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series with one match remaining on Thursday.
Samson, who was the ‘Player of the Series’ in India’s victorious T20 World Cup 2026 campaign earlier this year, was once again under pressure to retain his place as opener with 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi dropped after scoring 81 in his last T20I match against Zimbabwe in July.
The Chennai Super Kings opener revealed that it’s not easy to take ‘leadership calls’ with an in-form batter like Sooryavanshi also in the squad. “Running an Indian team is not an easy thing. You see, a 15-year-old boy has scored 700-800 runs,” Samson said at the post-match press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
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“Before the tournament, he had performed so well. He had to come in, some or the other manner. I think I had not performed in two or three games. He was in form and he wanted to win games in that series. It was very understandable from a leadership kind of a thing. I think as I told before, I have been in this situation. I have also taken a lot of tough calls as a captain, so I understand. That’s where the communication comes in,” Samson added.
Samson scored his 7th T20I fifty for Team India and he also has 3 centuries in the format. His knock on Tuesday was studded with 4 sixes and 7 fours as he put on 88 runs in just 6.2 overs for the opening wicket with Abhishek Sharma, who smashed 39 in 19 balls with 4 sixes and 2 fours.
The Indian opener added that communication within the group had been important in navigating decisions to pick or drop him to bring in Sooryavanshi, who was the ‘Player of the Series’ against Zimbabwe.
“Like I said earlier, communication was very important. Even now, there was a lot of communication in the middle of the series. Even before this series, he (head coach Gautam Gambhir) talked to me a lot. So it is not easy to take hard decisions. It is very easy to take very popular decisions. But I think as a leadership group, we have been taking some really tough calls, keeping the team in front. That’s where we have to give the credit to the leadership group,” the 31-year-old wicketkeeper batter added.
Samson became the 5th Indian opener after Rohit Sharma (3750 runs), KL Rahul (1856 runs), Shikhar Dhawan (1759 runs) and Abhishek Sharma (1726) to score over 1000 runs as opener in T20I cricket. He revealed that he tries to keep away the outside noise.
“I try to turn off the Wi-Fi. But sometimes the Wi-Fi gets (turned) on and I see some comments. Some senior players say something and some don’t. It is very normal. I think it is their choice. Sometimes it is their frame of mind, what words to use. It is totally up to them. They can use the positive frame of sentences, or they can use the negative frame of sentences. I think I have been mature enough and experienced enough how to handle it.
“I feel a little bad. I am not a machine. I am not a robot. You kind of get a bit affected. But then you try to talk to yourself and tell them what you are and what you need to do,” Samson added.
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