After his breathtaking century in the third and final T20I of the recently concluded Bangladesh series, Sanju Samson has set his eyes on breaking into the Indian Test team.
The Rajasthan Royals skipper scored a breathtaking 111 runs in just 47 balls against the Bangla Tigers to lead India to a record total of 297/6 in Hyderabad last week and subsequently a series clean sweep.
Samson’s 40-ball century, which included a massive haul of eight sixes and 11 fours, was also the second-fastest T20I ton by any Indian batter after Rohit Sharma’s century off just 35 balls against Sri Lanka in 2017.
While Samson continues to build on his reputation in the shortest format of the game, the 29-year-old also believes he has the skills required to excel in Test cricket as well.
“I believe I have the skill set to succeed in red-ball cricket and I just don’t want to restrict myself to white-ball cricket. My desire is to play Test cricket for India,” Samson said during a media interaction.
Following his exploits against Bangladesh, Samson, who scored a century for India D in the final round of the Duleep Trophy 2024, is set to return to the Kerala cricket team for the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 second-round clash against Karnataka. He is expected to lead Kerala in their away game at the KSCA Stadium in Alur on Friday, October 18.
“Before the Duleep Trophy, the leadership group had told me that they were considering me for red-ball cricket and asked me to take it seriously and play more Ranji Trophy matches. The century in the Duleep Trophy has given me a lot of confidence as it came against some of the best bowlers in the country,” he continued.
Samson missed Kerala’s Ranji Trophy opener as he was part of the Indian cricket team for the T20I series against Bangladesh. Kerala started their current Ranji Trophy campaign on a winning note by beating Punjab by eight wickets in Trivandrum on Monday.
The 29-year-old’s return will boost Kerala’s chances of making it to the knockouts for the first time since the 2018-19 season from a tough Elite Group C. The group has six former champions - Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh - apart from Kerala and Bihar.
“My preparation was good this time around. After the series against Sri Lanka, I trained at the RR (Rajasthan Royals) Academy with Rahul Dravid sir and Zubin Bharucha and worked on my game.”
“Gautam bhai (India Head Coach Gautam Gambhir) has always supported and backed me. When you have someone as a coach who believes in your ability, playing cricket becomes more enjoyable,” Samson concluded.
Kerala squad for Ranji Trophy 2024-25 second-round match
Kerala cricket team: Sanju Samson, Sachin Baby, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Vishnu Vinod, KM Asif, Basil Thampi, Baba Aparajith, Jalaj Saxena, Aditya Sarwate, MD Nidheesh, Akshay Chandran, Fazil Fanoos, Vathsal Govind, Krishna Prasad, Rohan Kunnummal, Salman Nizar, Basil NP.
