Indian Batsman Sanju Samson plays a shot during India and Afghanistan T20, at Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA 15 09 2026.“Main WiFi off kar deta hu (I switch the WiFi off),” quips Sanju Samson, on being asked how he reacts to negative comments.This was not the first instance of the Indian wicketkeeper-batter’s wit sparking a wave of laughter during a press conference. It was also not the first instance of Samson justifying his selection in the Indian team — battling waves of criticism in the process.That he effectively took India to a successful defence of the T20 World Cup crown earlier this year – with match-winning knocks in the quarter-final, semi-final and final – was reduced to little consequence when he accumulated merely 43 runs in his last five T20Is. Yet, upon being re-integrated into the team for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan, Samson showcased his value with a 22-ball 57 on Tuesday.Candid, as he almost always is, he responded to a query on the recent challenges by saying “I think after a few failures, you definitely go through a lot. Being an India cricketer, it’s not easy to face failures, but that’s where my experience comes in. I try to shut out the noise and be confident. I come out and still keep scoring at a high strike rate — even taking chances, knowing that if I fail again, I’ll be facing a lot of noise again. But that’s the way we are built in Indian cricket, and I just go out there and try to contribute.”At 31, Samson finds himself competing with a wunderkind less than half his age — Vaibhav Sooryavanshi — whom the team management had preferred ahead of the veteran in three of the five T20Is against England in July. Samson, though, justified the call, using his own experience of leading Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League as reference.“A 15-year-old kid is coming on the back of scoring 700-800 runs (in the IPL). The tournament I did well at (T20 World Cup) was before that. His performance was more recent. He had to come in, in some manner or the other. I did not perform in two or three games and he was in form, and we wanted to win games in that series. It was very understandable from a leadership point of view. I have been in this situation as an IPL captain. I have also taken tough calls,” he reflected.Shuvaditya Bose is a Deputy Copy Editor at the sports desk of The Indian Express. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.Tags:India cricket team