Gautam Gambhir calls dropping Sanju Samson his toughest decision

Gautam Gambhir and Sanju Samson (Pic: AFP)

India head coach Gautam Gambhir admitted that leaving out Sanju Samson, who earned Player of the Tournament honours during India's victorious home T20 World Cup campaign, during the tour of England was 'probably the toughest decision' of his coaching stint.

Following a string of poor performances, Samson made way for rising talent Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who made his highly anticipated international debut during the T20 series in England. However, India restored their preferred opening pairing of Abhishek Sharma and Samson for the home series against Afghanistan.

"First of all, he doesn't need to give me any credit (for proper communication when he wasn't playing). His talent itself is enough for him to be in the dressing room. He's shown what he's capable of. Someone doesn't become a player of the tournament in a World Cup without having the talent. So he's done enough," Gambhir praised Sanju Samson during the post-series interaction.

"Obviously, it was tough (dropping Samson). Probably the toughest decision I've taken in my coaching tenure is obviously leaving him out in that England series, because obviously, the way he's performed before that. But again, sometimes you go with players' form as well," the head coach added.

Gambhir says Sooryavanshi's time will come

Addressing Sooryavanshi's situation, Gambhir emphasised that the young batter will need to be patient for his next opening.

"In this series, we were always very clear that we want to go back to the combination that we had during the World Cup, because those guys, after three or four failures, do not become bad players. And the kind of cricket we've played - if a team that has gone unbeaten from one World Cup to the other World Cup and has won the World Cup - suddenly, it doesn't become a bad team after one or two series. These guys do not become bad players after two or three failures. That is what we said."

"From Vaibhav's point of view, it was again a very clear conversation that he has to wait for his opportunity. We know the kind of talent he has. We know what he can do."