Sanju Samson's father accuses Dhoni, Kohli, Rohit, Dravid of 'wasting 10 years of son's career'

Very few Indian cricketers have left the fans divided as Sanju Samson has. While one set of his hardcore fans swear by the 30-year-old wicketkeeper-batter, there are many who feel that though Sanju Samson is immensely talented, he has not done justice to the number of chances he has got.

Take the recent T20Is, for instance. Having hit a superb ton (111) against Bangladesh, Sanju followed it up with another brilliant century (107) against South Africa in the first match, becoming the first Indian batter to score back-to-back centuries in T20Is. However, the next two T20Is against the Proteas saw him getting consecutive ducks. Sanju now has has five ducks in 2024—only the second batter after Zimbabwe's Regis Chakabva (2022), from an ICC Full Member to bag five ducks in a calendar year. He is also the first player to score two consecutive ducks after scoring two consecutive centuries in T20Is.

It is true that Sanju has not really got a long run in either T20Is or ODIs. It can be attributed to India's strong player pool, and also to his failure to grab his chances when they have come his way.

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But, according to his father Vishwanath Samson, some of Indian cricket's stalwarts are to be blamed for a decade of lost opportunities for his son. In a recent interaction with Malayalam news outlet Media One, he blamed former India skippers Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, current captain Rohit Sharma and former head coach Rahul Dravid for “wasting 10 years of Sanju's career”. “There are 3-4 people who wasted 10 years of my son's career... captains like Dhoni ji, Virat [Kohli] ji, Rohit [Sharma] ji, and coach [Rahul] Dravid ji," Vishwanath said. "The more they hurt him, the stronger Sanju came out of the crisis."

He also slammed former cricketer Kris Srikkanth, accusing him of belittling Sanju's maiden T20I century against Bangladesh. "What hurt me were the comments from [Kris] Srikkanth. A century is a century. Sanju has scored a hundred and he is a player with a classical touch like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. At least, respect that."

Vishwanath Samson's remarks have gone viral on social media, though neither Sanju nor any of the cricketers named have reacted to it.

India lead the ongoing four-match T20I series against South Africa 2-1. While India won the first match by 61 runs, the hosts won the second by three wickets. India clinched the third yesterday by 11 runs, helped by Tilak Varma's unbeaten 107 and pacer Arshdeep Singh's 3/37.