'The only night I couldn't sleep...': Gambhir's honest admission on dropping Samson for Sooryavanshi

As India embarked on the UK tour after their second consecutive T20 World Cup triumph, everyone was excited to see a 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi make his T20I debut, especially after a record-breaking Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 he had. Shreyas Iyer’s T20I captaincy career got off an unexpected start as India lost the series to Ireland. Then, they headed to England and Sanju Samson couldn’t find his groove their either. It led to the tough call. Sooryavanshi got his T20I debut cap and Samson was benched. But, the swap did not work in India’s favour as they continued to lose in England. Months after the unsuccessful tour, head coach Gautam Gambhir has opened up on the call to drop Samson. Gambhir revealed that he couldn’t sleep at night after having an honest conversation with Samson, the opener who was ‘Player of the tournament’ in T20 World Cup 2026.

“In two years of my journey, that was the only night I could not sleep and I told this to Sanju because I knew that it was probably the toughest decision in my coaching tenure in the T20 format—to leave out someone who was Player of the Tournament after only three or four games. The reason was probably that Vaibhav was in that kind of form as well, and we had to win the series,” Gambhir said.

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“I had a very, very honest conversation with him and I told him that that is one of the reasons why, because Vaibhav was in that kind of form, and we needed someone to score runs at the top, we needed that little bit of a platform at the top as well. And he was fine with it,” he added.

Gambhir also revealed that he had a conversation with Sooryavanshi telling him that he will have to wait for his opportunity despite being in good form.

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How Samson-Sooryavanshi switch played out since T20 World Cup 2026

Soroyavanshi did not have a good start to his T20I career, registering scores of 14, 13 and 15. Samson registered scores of 5 and 0 against Ireland and was dismissed for a single in the washed out game. On his return, he scored 27 but India could not win a single T20I on the UK tour.

Following the UK tour, Samson was rested for Zimbabwe tour. It led to speculations whether Samson has been dropped from the side. On the Zimbabwe tour, Sooryavanshi was the highest run-scorer. He scored 151 runs including two half-centuries.

But, in the T20I series at home against Afghanistan, Samson returned to the side. He opened ahead of Sooryavanshi and scored two consecutive half-centuries after a 10-run outing in series opener. He played against Japan as well and scored nine runs in the five overs per side game. Meanwhile, Sooryavanshi continues to be benched.

Who will open in Asian Games 2026?

Currently, Gambhir is not India’s head coach for Asian Games 2026 as he is with the Shubman Gill-led ODI squad for the home series against West Indies. In his absence, CoE head VVS Laxman is the head coach for Asian Games 2026. It is yet to be seen whether Sooryavanshi gets a game at the games. India will begin their campaign on September 28 in the quarter-final match.