In early 2020, India toured New Zealand for a multi-format series. The series had started with a five-match T20I series, followed by a three-match ODI, and ended with a two-match Test series. Sanju Samson was part of the T20I set-up and got to open the innings in some of the games as well. For the unversed, Samson was making his comeback to the national team after the 2015 tour of Zimbabwe.
During that tour, he got to play only one T20I where he batted in the lower-middle order, which was unusual for him. However, his comeback to the team didn’t go as expected. The right-hander could only muster 10 runs in two games. Meanwhile, the Kerala player was reminiscing his time in New Zealand, and revealed how Rohit Sharma helped him open up. The 27-year-old said that he didn’t know which player to talk to. However, he said that Sharma asked him to accompany him for dinner.
“I remember I was in NZ, Rohit Sharma bhai was there, Virat Kohli bhai was there. You don’t know who to Approach, who to talk to, what to say, Rohit Bhai then came & said, come on, let’s go have dinner. I said oh okey sure let’s go bhaiya. It was very nice of him,” Sanju Samson said in a conversation on Gaurav Kapoor’s show Breakfast With Champions.
"I remember I was in NZ, Rohit Sharma bhai was there, Virat Kohli bhai was there. You don't know who to Approach, who to talk to, what to say, Rohit Bhai then came & said, come on, let's go have dinner. I said oh okey sure let's go bhaiya. It was very nice of him." – Sanju Samson
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) May 3, 2022
While speaking about Rahul Dravid, the Vizhinjam-born player added that the best quality of the legend is that he talks to everybody in the same tone.
“The best quality of Rahul Dravid is that – he will talk to the owner of Rajasthan Royals in the same manner and he will talk to the groundsman in the same manner – I will be like ‘How can you do it”, the talented keeper-batter added
Sanju Samson (in Breakfast with Champions) said "The best quality of Rahul Dravid is that – he will talk to the owner of Rajasthan Royals in the same manner and he will talk to the groundsman in the same manner – I will be like 'How can you do it".
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 3, 2022
Samson and Dravid played together for Rajasthan in the Indian T20 League in 2013. Later that year, Dravid retired from the game and worked with the team as a mentor for seasons 2014 and 2015 before the team was suspended in late 2015 on the charges of spot-fixing and betting.
