No matter who opens for the Indian T20I team, he is going to be a student of Yuvraj Singh. First it was the Abhishek Sharma-Shubman Gill combo. Now that Gill has been dropped and Sanju Samson has got back his opening role, even he is now training under the former Indian great. In what has come as a surprising act, Samson was seen taking tips from Yuvraj Singh ahead of the five-match T20I series against New Zealand that is basically a preparation series before the T20 World Cup 2026.
Sanju Samson, the new student of Yuvraj Singh?
Yuvraj has built himself a reputation of being a natural mentor for several high-level cricketers. Hailing from Punjab, the T20 World Cup 2007 and ODI World Cup 2011 winner molded Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill early in their senior-level careers. Although Yuvraj’s father Yograj Singh runs a cricket academy of his own, Yuvraj’s behind-the-scene work hasn’t gone unnoticed and it seems Samson is the new lucky one to learn from the best.
In a video that has gone viral, Yuvraj was seen teaching Samson some batting lessons and a padded-up Kerala superstar was listening carefully. After a superb 2024, where Samson asserted his dominance and scored 436 runs at 180.16, Samson’s stocks declined massively in 2025. He had an awful home series against England before the Champions Trophy before losing his opening spot to one of Yuvraj’s own students, Shubman Gill.
The Indian management had hopes from Gill to flourish as a T20I opener but that couldn’t happen. Despite batting across 15 innings, Gill managed to make just 291 runs at 24.25 and at a poor strike rate of 137.26 without a single fifty. This prompted the selectors to backtrack from their decision and bring Samson back at the top of the order, with Gill getting dropped altogether.
Now, the India vs New Zealand T20Is will see the resumption of Samson and Abhishek opening the innings together. They bring the fearlessness up top. In Samson, India sort out their wicket-keeping dilemma as well, while Abhishek can roll his arm over if needed as well.
IND vs NZ Live,1st ODI: New Zealand 76/0 (15 ovs), Hosts unable to find breakthrough
