04 July,2026 06:06 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Sanju Samson (Pic: File Pic)
The second T20I match between Team India and England is all set to be played on Saturday at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Greater Manchester.
Ahead of the match, Team India's wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson shared how he fell in love with the sport. The cricketer revealed his father used to represent Delhi Police in football. He then said that back then everyone in Delhi used to play cricket, following which he was attracted to the sport from childhood.
"Delhi has played a very big role in my life, to be very honest. My life started in Delhi. My father was in the Delhi Police football team. He used to go for practice in the morning and evening. From that time, I developed a love for sports. I felt that yes, I want to become a sportsman one day. I used to live in the police quarters. There, cricket used to be played everywhere. So automatically, cricket attracted me from childhood," he said on JioStar.
Although his father was a footballer, Sanju said that he never pushed him to pursue the sport. The 31-year-old cricketer then recollected that his father told him about watching him bat and later made him and his brother play cricket.
"I used to gather my friends and we would play in the middle of the road in the police colony, with quarters on both sides. We would put up stumps and play there. It started from proper gully cricket, with a tennis ball. We had our own rule. My father also saw that I was enjoying cricket. He never tried to push me into football. He used to take us to play football, and we still play it, but he thought that cricket has a good future. He told me, 'I saw you batting and I felt that you have talent.' So, he made me and my brother play cricket instead of football," said Samson.
In the first match of the ongoing five-match T20I series against the Englishmen, the Kerala-born cricketer managed to score just one run in seven balls. The right-handed batsman will be eager to put on a big show in the second T20I clash against England.
India: Sanju Samson (WK), Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer (C), Ishan Kishan (WK), Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Suryansh Shedge, Harshit Rana, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
England: Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Jos Buttler (WK), Jofra Archer, Luke Wood, Saqib Mahmood, Sam Curran, Phil Salt (WK), Josh Tongue, Harry Brook (C), Tom Banton, Will Jacks, Jordan Cox (WK), James Coles, Jacob Bethell, Rehan Ahmed, Sonny Baker.
