Sanju Samson’s poor T20I form continues with just 16 runs in three games — should India rethink his place ahead of T20 World Cup 2026?
10(7), 6(5), 0(1) – Sanju Samson’s story in the ongoing New Zealand T20I series reads like one of those cruel chapters cricket so often writes for its most gifted yet fragile artists. Three innings, three chances, and three exits that have landed with a thud at the worst possible time, the final five-match audition before the road to T20 World Cup 2026 truly begins to narrow.
For Samson, this bilateral series was a checkpoint. And right now, the warning lights are flashing. The entire cricket fraternity is unsure whether the Kerala-born wicketkeeper-batter will get another chance or will again have to rely on social media campaigns to fight for his place in the playing 11.
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A nightmare unfolds against New Zealand
The collapse has been swift and brutal. In the opening T20I, Samson looked momentarily fluent, striking two fours in his 10 off 7 before edging Kyle Jamieson. This dismissal hinted at intent but also impatience. The second game followed a familiar pattern: 6 off 5, hurried by Matt Henry’s extra pace. By the third, it was rock bottom, a first-ball duck, Matt Henry bending the ball late enough to expose Samson’s biggest technical fear.
Across three innings, the summary is painful: 16 runs, average 5.33, strike rate 123.07, dismissed every time by pace. Not even surviving the powerplay. New Zealand didn’t do anything extraordinary; they simply bowled hard lengths early and waited for Samson’s aggression to betray him, and it did.
The pressure cooker around him
A batter going through three poor innings in a row is not something out of the blue. Slumps happen. What puts Samson under an unforgiving spotlight, however, is the context. These failures have come on surfaces where Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav made run-scoring look absurdly easy, clearing boundaries as if they were playing football rather than a cricket ball, with ropes looking as if 20–30 metres away. The contrast has been impossible to ignore.
The weight of the slump is amplified by the timing. Ishan Kishan, powered by instinct and fearless intent, is pounding on the selection door, his 76 off 32 balls in the second T20I a sharp reminder that modern T20 roles are judged in bursts, not patience.
Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer is sitting in the dugout waiting for his chance in the middle order, while Tilak Varma’s comeback will only tighten the squeeze. In such a crowded race, every failure for Samson feels fatal. Each innings becomes a fight to stay alive, not a chance to play freely.
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A career of contrasts
From a distance, Sanju Samson’s T20I numbers still carry a sense of reassurance. In 55 matches, he has accumulated 1,048 runs at an average of 24.37 and a healthy strike rate of 147.60, with three centuries and three fifties to his name.
But scratch beneath the surface and a more worrying pattern emerges. This drought is not a brief dip in form; it has been building for nearly a year. Since January 2025, Samson has crossed the PowerPlay only once in nine T20I innings as an opener, averaging just 11.55 in that period.
The contrast with what came before is stark. It was on the strength of his 2024 surge that Samson earned backing ahead of Shubman Gill, who struggled to deliver both the volume of runs and the strike rate India demanded at the top. That year, Samson showed he could marry explosiveness with substance, highlighted by a blazing 111 off 47 against Bangladesh in Hyderabad and a commanding 109 off 56 against South Africa in Johannesburg.
The slump since January 2025
If 2024 was the peak, 2025 has been the plunge. In 2024, Samson scored 436 runs in 12 matches at a strike rate of staggering 180, while the slump came in 2025, where he could manage to get almost half of his 2024 score, 222 runs in 11 matches at a nominal strike rate of 126.9.
In his last 10 innings, he has managed roughly 203 runs at an average of 20.3. Against England earlier in 2025, he scored a mere 51 runs in five matches with an average barely scraping double digits. The New Zealand series has only deepened the wound.
This is jarring when placed beside his golden 2024 run, and forced selectors to back him over more conservative options like Shubman Gill. That goodwill, however, is evaporating fast.
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What’s going wrong technically?
Former India cricketer WV Raman summed it up perfectly when he noted that Samson doesn’t adjust the speed of his bat to match the pace of the ball. He swings at one speed, fast, whether it’s Henry at full tilt or a slower cutter gripping the surface.
Technically, the issues are layered. His trigger movement loads too much weight onto the back foot, leaving him late against the inswing. His bat often drags behind his body, leading to mistimed drives and edges. Against short bowling, balance deserts him; against movement, his front pad becomes a liability, exposing the stumps.
There’s also a mental aspect that’s hard to ignore. Samson tends to rush the Powerplay, especially after periods of success, as if trying to prove he belongs every single ball. It was evident in the third T20 against New Zealand, where he went to strike hard on the very first ball of the innings, knowing what form he had been carrying throughout the series.
#Samson will be inconsistent as long as he doesn't adjust the speed of his bat on the downswing in relation to the pace of the ball. In simple terms one can't drive a car at the same speed all the time, everywhere. #IndvNz #CricketTwitter
— WV Raman (@wvraman) January 23, 2026
Déjà Vu from the 2024 World Cup
For Samson, this pain isn’t new. At the 2024 T20 World Cup, he arrived on the back of a sensational IPL season, 531 runs, confidence sky-high, only to falter in a warm-up game against Bangladesh. One bad outing, and Rishabh Pant walked into the XI. Samson spent the tournament carrying drinks.
Now, history threatens to repeat itself. Ishan Kishan feels like Pant 2.0. The competition is ruthless.
And yet, for all the gloom, it’s impossible not to feel for Sanju Samson. Talent like his doesn’t vanish overnight. Those three centuries, that calm face in all pressure situations, that effortless loft over extra cover, still exist.
But time is cruel. With World Cup 2026 looming and rivals circling, it is highly unlikely that Samson will get another chance to adapt now. But if he gets another match, softer hands, a calmer Powerplay, variable bat speed should be the only thing for him to keep in mind. These were the same tweaks that powered his 2024 purple patch.
Cricket rarely offers long second chances. Whether Samson gets one more may depend on the next few innings.
Sanjuu 💔 #INDvsNZ
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) January 25, 2026
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