Aakash Chopra recalls Gambhir's old tweet on Samson: Best young batter in India

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra reminded fans of an old tweet from Gautam Gambhir about his admiration towards Sanju Samson. Chopra’s comment comes after Samson paid off India’s trust in him with a riveting century in the 3rd T20I against Bangladesh.

Samson became India’s first wicketkeeper batter to hit a century in the T20I format and drove the team’s charge to put up a humongous 297-run total. India’s exploits in Hyderabad helped them register the highest ever T20I total by a Test playing nation.

“Let’s talk about Sanju Samson, the phenomenon. Gautam Gambhir had tweeted a few years ago that Sanju Samson is not only India’s best wicketkeeper-batter but the best young batter in the country. Once I was interviewing him (Samson) and I told him that the only motive in his life should be to get Gautam to tweet,” he said.

India vs Bangladesh, 3rd T20I: Highlights | Full Scorecard

“Gautam used to wait for Sanju to do well for him to tweet. Gautam was a Sanju fan. He may still be a Sanju fan because of the way he batted. Firstly, he hit five sixes in an over. He was stepping away and hitting sixes and fours along the ground. You will always see that silken touch in Sanju’s batting. His batting is extremely pleasing to the eye. He hits sixes while standing in his position and hits straight. He hit a six off the backfoot over cover against Mustafizur, and I was like ‘Wow’,” he elaborated.

Sanju Samson himself credited the Indian team management for backing him despite his twin failures agianst Sri Lanka. Samson hailed Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir for showing trust in him and revealed that they told him 3 weeks before the series to prepare for the opener’s spot.

Chopra hailed Samson’s innings and said that it was good to see Samson cashing in on the chance as he has not been selected consistently like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

“Sanju Samson scoring a century is a massive positive. You don’t often get to bat first twice in a three-match series on good pitches with the opposing team not pushing you that much. In such a scenario, if you send the series without scoring runs, the pressure increases, and on Sanju in any case,” he said.

“His career graph has been like that. He doesn’t get repeated opportunities that easily and in any case, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shubman Gill will come back at some stage. It was an important innings. So well done Sanju Samson,” Chopra observed.