Throwback to when Sanju Samson who was just a college student got his maiden call-up to the Indian cricket team and this was how his college celebrated. College declared holiday and whole college celebrated this achievement 💙🇮🇳 An 18 year old Sanju Samson received his first call-up to the Indian team in 2013 after winning the Emerging Player of the Tournament award in IPL 2013. But he didn't get a single opportunity that year. In 2014, Sanju was called up again for the ODI and T20 series against England, only to spend the entire series on the bench, even when India won the series. Finally, in 2015, Sanju made his international debut against Zimbabwe. And what was his batting position? No. 7🙃 He was forced to bat down the order and played just one match in that series. It then took another five years for Sanju to play his next match for India, in 2020. And the same story continued. Just one or two opportunities a year, often at different batting positions, while being consistently overlooked for ICC tournaments and other multinational tournaments. When India needed a T20 World Cup squad, he was given opportunities in ODIs. When the ODI World Cup approached, he was given opportunities in T20Is. His career was constantly disrupted by a lack of continuity and clarity over his role. After all those years, Sanju was finally selected for an ICC tournament for the first time in his 10 year international career in 2024. But despite delivering his best IPL season that year, he had to sit on the bench throughout the entire T20 World Cup. Then Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired from T20Is, and Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav took charge as coach and captain, respectively. This was when Sanju Samson was finally promoted to the opening position. Before Gambhir took over, Sanju had never been given more than three consecutive matches for India in the same format. But under Gambhir, he scored his maiden T20I century when he played 5 consecutive matches for India for the first time in his career and it came against Bangladesh. He then scored two more centuries against South Africa in the following series, becoming the first and only batter to score three T20I centuries in a calendar year. 🔥 And yet, he was pushed back into the middle order, forced to bat at No. 5 during the 2025 Asia Cup. Despite that, he finished among India's top three run-scorers in the tournament. Just before the 2026 T20 World Cup, Sanju was again selected as opener. But he was again benched for the World Cup initially but later he came back as opener and the rest is history 🥇 In the first ICC tournament of his career, Sanju Samson became the Player of the Tournament and helped India win the World Cup. 🏆🇮🇳 It took Sanju Samson almost 11 years to establish himself in the Indian team. For years, he was forced to bat out of position, denied a consistent run of matches, and made to sit on the bench while his seniors were preferred over him rightfully. But he never complained and never posted anything on social medias for attention he just kept continuing to do what he always does and he never gave up 💪🏻 Sanju was benched for his seniors and now, when he has finally established himself as an opener and proved what he can do with a consistent role, a new narrative is being built around asking him to make way for youngsters, with people arguing that he is getting old and that it's time to move on from Sanju. He has 56 average in ODIs and scored century in his last match for India in South Africa but never again was picked in the ODI squad and it’s been 3 years 💔 Everyone gets their time. Everyone has their own journey. And this is Sanju Samson's time. 💙🇮🇳 Sanju Samson story is one of the best inspiring motivational story for all the youngsters out there 🙌