3 min readUpdated: Mar 16, 2026 02:35 PM IST
Sanju Samson’s career might have been up and down, but the fans he accumulated over the years kept rising. The Kerala batter himself said he is a bit surprised by the amount of popularity he has amongst the fans. The 31-year-old recalled an incident when he was playing an ODI game in the West Indies when the DJ there started playing Malayalam songs.
“I have also been a bit surprised experiencing all this. Definitely, I do expect some amount in Kerala and Dubai. But experiencing this in New Zealand and the West Indies was like a shocker,” Samson said during the India Today Conclave.
“I still remember walking to bat when I was playing a one-day game. I was batting at number five, and I was walking into the ground. The DJ was playing a lot of their local songs and English songs, but the songs then changed, and a Malayalam song started in the stadium. Songs of our famous singer Jassie Gift were being played in the West Indies.”
“That’s the amount of love and support that I am receiving. I have to admit that I am humbled and I feel very fortunate,” the opener added.
Kerala-Punjab friendship
Samson has now spoken about the bond that the unlikely duo share. “We are not ice and fire, we are fire and fire. Sometimes he fires, sometimes I do,” said Samson on India Today. “We have that kind of combination going. We have done this since 2024, we have a Kerala-Punjabi friendship in the middle.”
Samson is six years senior to Abhishek in cricketing terms, having started his senior professional career for Kerala in October 2011. Abhishek’s first senior professional game for Punjab was in February 2017. The pair never really opened the batting together for any side before they came together at the top of the order for India in late 2024. Samson, however, said that interacting effectively in the middle comes pretty naturally to them. “Everything comes pretty naturally to us, so we do not complicate it. He asks me, ‘How is the ball coming?’ I tell him that the ball is coming normally, hit it for a six. It is really simple with him. Abhishek is very brave and collected, I love his character. I really love the partnership with him on and off the field.”
