India head coach Gautam Gambhir has revealed the emotional difficulty behind one of his biggest selection calls in T20Is, admitting that dropping Sanju Samson during the England series left him unable to sleep.Samson, who was named Player of the Tournament during India’s T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year, was left out after the first match of the five-game series in England in July. India had lost that opening T20I, with teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi coming into the XI for his T20I debut in Manchester.Gambhir said the decision weighed heavily on him, particularly because Samson had played such an important role in India’s World Cup success. Speaking to JioStar ahead of India’s home season against the West Indies, the India coach revealed just how difficult the call was.“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 a T20 format because someone who was player of the tournament, and then you have to leave him out after three or four games. And the reason was probably Vaibhav was in that kind of form as well, and we had to win the series.“Because ultimately you are there and when you are playing for India, or when you are coaching India, you want to win each and every series possible. 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. And that’s a conversation which me and Sanju had, and he took it in good spirits,” said Gambhir.The call was eventually reversed when India returned home for their three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. Samson came back into the side at Sooryavanshi’s expense and went on to hit back-to-back fifties as India completed a 3-0 series sweep.Gambhir also used the episode to explain why even a player in exceptional form cannot automatically expect a place in India’s playing XI.“I know, it is (tough). But then, I made him understand that I know you’re in good form, but sometimes with the players who have done well for a long time, you will have to wait for your opportunity.“There’s one more thing – social media or outside noise doesn’t decide the playing eleven. Playing eleven who, in that dressing room, or who the coach and captain feel can win us the match, or what is the best playing eleven, and who have done well for such a long time because if Vaibhav plays today, then it’s going to be a tough conversation between me and whoever we leave out, whether it’s Abhishek or Sanju.“So we can’t suddenly ignore that a combination that has created such an impact over the last one and a half or two years, that after three or four failures we drop them and play a young player who is very talented, who is also in very good form.“So sometimes you will have to wait for your opportunity and we still want to create that security in that dressing room. Because it is very easy for me to take popular decisions, but it is probably the toughest thing for me to take the right decisions and we’ve taken the right decision of continuing with Sanju and Abhishek,” he explained.Sooryavanshi’s emergence has nevertheless added another dimension to India’s T20I selection puzzle. The teenager made his international debut in Manchester, but Gambhir stressed that India’s established combination cannot be discarded simply because a young player is performing well.For the India coach, maintaining continuity remains particularly important given the team’s recent success. Gambhir pointed to the short turnaround between India’s World Cup triumphs while arguing against overreacting to isolated setbacks.“For two years, imagine, you imagine we won the World Cup – which team in the history of sport has gone undefeated from one World Cup to the other and gone on to win the World Cup?“It didn’t take these guys 17 years to win the second World Cup. It took these guys only 17 months to win the third World Cup. Suddenly one bad series or three bad games here and there does not make them a bad player or does not make us a bad side. So it was very important for us to have that continuity.”
