Not trying to be the perfect batsman anymore, says Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson had burst onto the scene in the 2013 IPL edition for the Rajasthan Royals and was tipped for greater things. However, his career has not panned out as expected. He was in the reckoning in the side four years ago and played a T20 match vs Zimbabwe when a second-string Indian side toured them. But later, he failed the yoyo test. Inconsistency is what had plagued his chances. But he has been super-consistent off late with a fantastic Vijay Hazare Trophy that booked his place in India's T20I side that will host Bangladesh for a three-match series. Samson has learnt to embrace his flaws rather than putting excessive pressure on himself to become the perfectionist at batting, something that is impossible.

"You rightly said it has been a roller-coaster ride for me. If you have a very safe and easy career there are very less things you will learn," Samson told TOI.

"I have learnt a lot in the last four to five years. If you have failed a lot of times then you know how to rise up and how to succeed. I have failed a lot of times in my life so I know how to stand up and perform. That has been a blessing," he further added.

He was destined to be MS Dhoni's successor. But his decline coincided with the rise of Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik, who in the end eclipsed his hopes of playing for India in the 2019 World Cup. He understands that he could have played better but he does not regret it as according to him every part of his journey till now has taught him a great lesson.

"I don't have any regrets. As I said I have gone through a lot of ups and downs. I had lots of high expectations about myself that I should have performed much better than what I did," Samson said.

"But lately, I understood that everything has its own time and you have to be patient for your turn. I have been doing that and have become a better person in the process," he added.

Samson believes he is now in a great mental space as a batsman. He feels he used to put more pressure on himself to become a perfectionist at batting which he does not do anymore. This has helped him to bat freely and score heaps of runs and once again return to the reckoning in the Indian setup.

"I have understood my game a lot more, a lot about myself as a person. I have worked on my strengths and not tried to be the perfect batsman that I tried be for a long time. I understood that no one can be a perfect batsman. Now I keep it simple and enjoy my cricket," Samson said.

Samson had failed the yo-yo test in 2018 for the India A side. He believes his fitness is something he is working on and is getting stronger day by day as to get into Virat Kohli's team India, fitness is of paramount importance. So he believes that the yo-yo test failure was a one-off thing and that is not likely to repeat as he is fully committed to working on his fitness.