# Sanju Samson admits outside noise hurts, backs leadership group 2026-09-16T05:17:27+00:00 | Sports | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 4 independent outlets Sanju Samson smashed 57 off 22 balls in the second T20I against Afghanistan in New Delhi on Tuesday, powering India to a seven-wicket win and an unassailable 2-0 series lead. But his post-match press conference drew more attention than his batting. The India wicketkeeper-batter admitted that the intense scrutiny and selection debates surrounding his place in the team do affect him. "I feel a little bad. I am not a machine," he said. He said he tries to "turn off the Wi-Fi" but sometimes comments get through. Samson, 31, is competing for an opening slot with Abhishek Sharma and 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who scored 700-800 runs in a recent series. Samson said he understood when he was dropped for Sooryavanshi after his own failures. "It was very understandable from a leadership point of view," he said. The wicketkeeper-batter credited head coach Gautam Gambhir and the leadership group for communicating tough selection calls. "It is not easy to take hard decisions," he said. The third T20I against Afghanistan is on 19 September. ## Indian Opinion Analysis All four sources converge on the same raw material: Sanju Samson's own words from a single press conference after his 57 off 22 against Afghanistan. Rediff.com, India Today, Telangana Today and Times of India each lead with different quotes, Rediff with his "I am not a machine" admission, India Today with the selection pressure narrative, Telangana Today with his process-over-results philosophy, Times of India with his explanation for being dropped for 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. None of the sources frames this as a crisis, each treats Samson's candour as a human-interest story about resilience. The only factual divergence is the emphasis each outlet places on the generational competition with Sooryavanshi, Times of India and India Today foreground it, while Telangana Today and Rediff give it less weight. The Indian team's leadership group (Gautam Gambhir, Suryakumar Yadav) is uniformly portrayed as supportive, not authoritarian. ## Coverage - rediff.com (neutral report) leads with Samson's emotional vulnerability and backs rest of story with neutral quotes from same press conference - indiatoday.in (neutral report) frames story as a 'candid presser' revealing selection pressure, foregrounds Sooryavanshi competition - telanganatoday.com (neutral report) leads with Samson's 'process over results' philosophy, backgrounds the selection drama - timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report) leads with Sooryavanshi dropping context, quotes Samson explaining his own benching Tags: Afghanistan, Arun Jaitley Stadium, Gautam Gambhir, India, Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/sanju-samson-admits-outside-noise-hurts-but-he-has-learnt-to-cope/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/sanju-samson-admits-outside-noise-hurts-but-he-has-learnt-to-cope/#story-in-brief