“I Was Fortunate Enough to Play with Rahul Dravid”: Sanju Samson

Currently this is the dream come true moment for Sanju Samson as he has earned his call-up for Inida. Has been playing for List A for more than seven years since his debut, Sanju Samson made his first hundred in 50-overs cricket earlier this month and turned it into a double century as well. However, while speaking about his journey, he shared many things with ESPNCricInfo.

India squad have been announced recently where Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube have been included. He has been a known face of domestic, List A as well as Indian Premier League and plays for Rajasthan Royals. He even shared former India player Rahul Dravid’s impact on him.

“I was fortunate enough to play with people like Rahul Dravid at the age of 19 and have him as a coach at India A. And meeting lots of people, like Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Joe Buttler – I talk a lot with them about the game,” he said.

He furthe added that it is important to know whatthe actual goal is. Being a wicketkeeper-batsman, he certainly knows that he had to take place of MS Dhoni if he wants to play.

“The main thing is that you need to understand what you’re aiming at. I’m a wicketkeeper-batsman and the Indian team has the most successful captain and keeper in the world. So MS Dhoni was someone I had to replace if I wanted to play for India. It was not going to happen,” he expressed.

“You have to be realistic about what you’re aiming for. At that point I knew I had a lot of time to prepare myself. You need to be prepared to make yourself worthy to play in the Indian jersey. I was lucky to get four or five years in the domestic season, in the IPL or in the India A set-up. Everything doesn’t happen quickly,” Sanju Samson concluded.