Team India opener Sanju Samson smashed a match-winning 57 in 22 balls with 4 sixes in 2nd T20I match vs Afghanistan at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Published: September 16, 2026, 10:58 AM IST
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Indian opener Sanju Samson en route to scoring 57 in 2nd T20I match vs Afghanistan on Tuesday(Photo: IANS)
India vs Afghanistan 2026 2nd T20: Team India opener Sanju Samson answered his critics on Tuesday in the second T20I match against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New DelhiSamson smashed 57 in 22 balls to set up India’s second-successive seven-wicket win over the Afghans to help take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series with one match remaining on Thursday.
Samson, who was the ‘Player of the Series’ in India’s victorious T20 World Cup 2026 campaign earlier this year, was once again under pressure to retain his place as opener with 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi dropped after scoring 81 in his last T20I match against Zimbabwe in July.
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Nitish Kumar Reddy’s three-wicket haul powers India to explosive victory over Afghanistan
The Chennai Super Kings opener revealed that it’s not easy to take ‘leadership calls’ with an in-form batter like Sooryavanshi also in the squad“Running an Indian team is not an easy thingYou see, a 15-year-old boy has scored 700-800 runs,” Samson said at the post-match press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
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“Before the tournament, he had performed so wellHe had to come in, some or the other mannerI think I had not performed in two or three gamesHe was in form and he wanted to win games in that seriesIt was very understandable from a leadership kind of a thingI think as I told before, I have been in this situationI have also taken a lot of tough calls as a captain, so I understandThat’s where the communication comes in,” Samson added.
Samson scored his 7th T20I fifty for Team India and he also has 3 centuries in the formatHis knock on Tuesday was studded with 4 sixes and 7 fours as he put on 88 runs in just 6.2 overs for the opening wicket with Abhishek Sharma, who smashed 39 in 19 balls with 4 sixes and 2 fours.
The Indian opener added that communication within the group had been important in navigating decisions to pick or drop him to bring in Sooryavanshi, who was the ‘Player of the Series’ against Zimbabwe.
“Like I said earlier, communication was very importantEven now, there was a lot of communication in the middle of the seriesEven before this series, he (head coach Gautam Gambhir) talked to me a lotSo it is not easy to take hard decisionsIt is very easy to take very popular decisionsBut I think as a leadership group, we have been taking some really tough calls, keeping the team in frontThat’s where we have to give the credit to the leadership group,” the 31-year-old wicketkeeper batter added.
I try to turn off my wi-fi: Sanju Samson
Samson became the 5th Indian opener after Rohit Sharma (3750 runs), KL Rahul (1856 runs), Shikhar Dhawan (1759 runs) and Abhishek Sharma (1726) to score over 1000 runs as opener in T20I cricketHe revealed that he tries to keep away the outside noise.
“I try to turn off the Wi-FiBut sometimes the Wi-Fi gets (turned) on and I see some commentsSome senior players say something and some don’tIt is very normalI think it is their choiceSometimes it is their frame of mind, what words to useIt is totally up to themThey can use the positive frame of sentences, or they can use the negative frame of sentencesI think I have been mature enough and experienced enough how to handle it.
“I feel a little badI am not a machineI am not a robotYou kind of get a bit affectedBut then you try to talk to yourself and tell them what you are and what you need to do,” Samson added.
