Almost eight years ago, a T20 carnival appeared on our television screens. Like millions of cricket fans in India, a 13-year-old from Kerala also watched the extravaganza with starry eyes as Brendon McCullum set the stage on fire at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru against Kolkata Knight Riders to set the IPL bandwagon off to a rollicking start. Little did he know that, he would become one of those cricketing stars five years later.

In a small Police residential colony of GTB Nagar in the national capital was where Sanju’s tryst with cricket started. Viswanath Samson, a centre forward for the Delhi Police for 22 years, used to organise tennis-ball matches in the residential colony in North Delhi back then. Sanju and his brother Saly grew up playing these games, but the one thing both the boys hated was getting out for low scores. If they were out early, Viswanath would send them back to home. To avoid getting out Sanju and his brother structured their game around playing straight. In addition to the tennis cricket ball matches, Viswanath took Sanju and Saly to the training sessions of the Delhi Police cricket team.

After Viswanath’s retirement from the job, the family moved back to Thiruvananthapuram, his hometown, and that is where Sanju had his first cricket coaching. The 11-year old then rose through the ranks in age group cricket, and made it to the India U-19 team. But, it was his decision to attend a trail by Rajasthan Royals, that changed the story completely.

Kolkata Knight Riders had released Sanju January back in 2013 after not giving a first-team chance. The wicket-keeper batsman’s IPL dreams looked gone even before it began. Fellow Keralite S Sreesanth took the youngster to a trial conducted by Rajasthan Royals and that’s where Rahul Dravid first saw the exciting right-hander. Seeing Sanju’s talent, the Indian cricket legend walked up to him and asked, “Sanju, you have a very special talent and I would really love to make you play in my Rajasthan Royals team. Would you play for us?,” Sanju told ESPNcricinfo about the interaction with Dravid.

Still 18 at the that time, Sanju’s shots against Johnson and other fast bowlers was more about hard work than talent. In an attempt to handle 145+kph deliveries, the youngster practised by putting flex and plastic sheets on the top of coir matting. To increase speed Sanju and his coach Biju George poured water on the sheets and made bowlers bowl from 18 yards instead of 22. The ball flew around and hit Sanju a few times, but the hard work on the training ground paid off when he faced up against Johnson. He fearlessly took on the Aussie speedster and went on to score 63 off 30 balls.

The Kerala lad remained as the understudy to the Indian skipper M S Dhoni for the five-match ODI and one-off T20 series. Although he did not made his debut in England, the call-up made sure that Sanju was kept in the scheme of things to become the successor to Dhoni’s gloves. He finally wore the Indian Blue a year later during India’s tour of Zimbabwe. Ambati Rayudu’s injury during the tour opened up a slot and Sanju went on to make his debut in the second T20. The maiden appearance was nothing spectacular. A 19-ball 24 in a 146-run chase did not go well for the Men in Blue and they ended up 10-run short of a victory.

The India debut was a high point in the youngster’s career. He was touted as the next big thing and a potential replacement when Dhoni finally decides to call it day. Everything looked set and ready. Sanju went into the 2015/16 Ranji Trophy season hoping for a productive season to make a dash for the Indian Test team. But what turned out was a disappointing campaign for the young-gun. He made 208 runs in 8 matches, averaging just 16 in the season. More importantly, almost half of his runs in the season came from a single innings, in which he made 101 against Jammu and Kashmir.

Batting at No.3, Sanju arrived at the crease in the second over after the fall of Quinton de Kock. The batsman’s style of playing with the straight bat was on show as he drove Jasprit Bumrah straight back for his first boundary of the innings. The ‘V’ is Sanju’s favourite scoring area and he once again showed it by sending Harbhajan Singh for a humungous 108m six straight down the ground. The 21-year old then swept the off-spinner for another boundary between square leg and fine leg. The innings had everything, 28 singles, two doubles, four boundaries and two sixes, as Sanju showed his ability by scoring 60 off 48 balls.

Although his next two innings showed the inconsistency in his performances, with Dravid looking over his shoulders, the youngster is unlikely to go missing anytime soon. With M S Dhoni likely to call it a day soon, India would be searching for a new wicket-keeper batsman to fill those boots. Among all the other candidates for the same position, the 21-year-old from Kerala seems the best bet to take over the job from the Jharkhand man, with his best years yet to come.