Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson opened the innings for India in the ongoing third T20I against New Zealand. But in the match taking place at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, he failed to open his account and instead
got out for a golden duck. On the first ball of India’s innings, Matt Henry breached Samson’s defence and shattered his stumps. Samson, who is India’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in T20Is, was only able to score 6 runs from 4 balls in the 2nd T20I, and in the series opener, he made 10 runs from 7 balls.
The duck by Samson on Sunday (January 25) is his 7th zero score in 55 T20Is played so far for Team India.
Only Rohit Sharma has scored more ducks in T20Is for India than Sanju. Rohit, who led India to a T20 World Cup title win in 2024, failed to open his account in 12 out of 159 T20I matches for India from 2007 to 2024.
Batting superstar Virat Kohli finished his T20I career with seven ducks for India and Suryakumar Yadav has six ducks to his credit in T20Is.
Most ducks for India in T20Is
| PLAYER | MATCHES | RUNS | DUCKS |
| Rohit Sharma | 159 | 4231 | 12 |
| Virat Kohli | 125 | 4188 | 7 |
| Sanju Samson | 55 | 1048 | 7 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | 102 | 2902 | 6 |
| KL Rahul | 72 | 2265 | 5 |
By getting bowled out by Henry on the first ball of India’s innings in the 155-run chase, Samson became the fourth Indian batter to get dismissed on the first ball of a T20I innings.
Indian batters dismissed first ball of a T20I innings
| BATTER | BOWLER | TEAM | VENUE | DATE |
| KL Rahul | Donald Tiripano | Zimbabwe | Harare | June 18, 2016 |
| Prithvi Shaw | Dushmantha Chameera | Sri Lanka | Colombo (RPS) | July 25, 2021 |
| Rohit Sharma | Obed McCoy | West Indies | Basseterre | August 1, 2022 |
| Sanju Samson | Matt Henry | New Zealand | Guwahati | January 25, 2026 |
In T20Is, Samson has got out for a golden duck three times so far. His first golden duck was against Afghanistan in Bengaluru on January 17, 2024. On July 28, 2024, against Sri Lanka in Pallekele, Maheesh Theekshana also dismissed him for a golden duck.
