Members of the Indian cricketing fraternity along with a few others from the international arena gathered under a roof on Tuesday, October 7 at the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards 2025. In a ceremony which
catered to glamour and some cricketing knowledge, saw several renowned names from across borders get honoured in a glittering ceremony. Among them was Indian wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who won the CEAT Best T20I Cricketer of the Year award for his blitz.
After struggling to be a permanent face in the Indian setup, Samson has gone on to become a permanent member of the T20I setup. Although, the Kerala-born batted regular for a year at the top of the order, he found himself coming out to bat in the middle-order during India’s recent Asia Cup 2025 victory, mainly because of Shubman Gill’s return into the setup.
Whatever job for the country, I don't mind: Sanju Samson on batting in middle order
While his position has been a talk of the town since long now, he was recently asked about the same at the CEAT Cricket Awards, held on Tuesday night in Mumbai. When asked about batting at unusual number, he said, "I think when you wear the Indian jersey, you can't say no to anything. I've worked really hard to wear that Indian jersey and stay in that dressing room. I take a lot of pride in doing my job for my country.”
Watch Sanju Samson open up on his batting order:
“Even if you want me to bat at No. 9, maybe bowl some left-arm spin, whatever job for the country, I don't mind," Samson added with a laugh. The 30-year-old also highlighted on the mental development he has had over the years, stating, "I recently completed 10 years of international cricket, but I've played only 40 games in those 10 years. Honestly, I put in a post saying the numbers don't tell the whole story, but I'm really proud of the person I am today, and I'm really proud of the challenges I went through. Instead of focusing on the outside noise, I started a habit of focusing on the internal noise.”
The Kerala wicketkeeper-batter will return to action when India travel to Australia for five-match T20I series, starting from October 29.
