2011–12
Kerala breakthrough
Samson made his first-class debut for Kerala against Vidarbha in November 2011 and quickly became a notable domestic wicketkeeper-batter.
India · Chennai Super Kings
Sanju Samson
Wicketkeeper-batter · Right-hand bat
Photo creditAnand Anil · CC BY-SA 4.0
Archive portrait from 6 November 2017; not a current match photo.
Archive portrait from 6 November 2017; not a current match photo.
- Full name
- Sanju Viswanath Samson
- Born
- 11 November 1994
- Birthplace
- Pulluvila, Vizhinjam, Trivandrum
- Age on 22 October 2026
- 31
- Role
- Wicketkeeper-batter
- Batting style
- Right-hand bat
- Bowling style
- Not verified; fetched career tables show no regular bowling role
- Current team (verified 22 October 2026)
- Chennai Super Kings (IPL 2026); India internationally
- Team-qualified home ground
- M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (Chennai Super Kings team venue; player-specific home-ground designation Not verified)
- Jersey number
- Not verified from an official player profile
- T20I debut
- 19 July 2015, Zimbabwe v India, Harare
- ODI debut
- 23 July 2021, Sri Lanka v India, Colombo (R. Premadasa Stadium)
- First-class debut
- 3 November 2011, Vidarbha v Kerala, Nagpur
- IPL debut
- 14 April 2013, Rajasthan Royals v Punjab Kings, Jaipur
Sanju Samson: Profile
Sanju Viswanath Samson is an Indian wicketkeeper-batter who combines a right-hand top-order game with wicketkeeping; as of the 22 October 2026 retrieval he is listed in the Chennai Super Kings IPL 2026 squad and remains an India T20I player.
He began in Kerala cricket, made his first-class debut in 2011 and broke into the IPL with Rajasthan Royals in 2013. His IPL career also included Delhi Daredevils/Delhi Capitals during Rajasthan’s two-season suspension, before he became a Royals captain and long-term mainstay.
The fetched current sources show a strong split between his domestic/franchise record and international sample: 5,181 IPL runs and five IPL hundreds in the Royals/CSK-era summary, alongside 510 ODI runs at 56.67 and 1,802 T20I runs at 27.72 in Cricbuzz’s latest profile. The source tables disagree on a few update points, so this preview labels the cutoff and preserves the discrepancy rather than inventing a reconciliation.
Awards and honours
| Year | Award | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | IPL Best Young Player of the Season | ESPNcricinfo’s profile says Samson won the award after scoring 206 runs and taking 13 catches for Rajasthan Royals. |
| 2025 | CEAT T20I Batter of the Year | Rajasthan Royals’ official award report says Samson received the honour after a 2024 season with 436 T20I runs at 43.60 and a 180.16 strike rate. |
Sanju Samson: Career Journey
2013
IPL arrival with Rajasthan
Rajasthan Royals gave Samson his IPL debut in 2013; ESPNcricinfo records his 2013 Best Young Player award after 206 runs and 13 catches.
2015
India T20I debut
He debuted for India in T20Is against Zimbabwe at Harare on 19 July 2015, beginning an intermittent early international run.
2016–17
Delhi interlude
During Rajasthan’s IPL suspension, Samson played for Delhi Daredevils, continuing as a wicketkeeper-batter before returning to the Royals.
2021–22
Captain and finalist
Samson became Rajasthan Royals captain in 2021; in 2022 he led the side to the IPL final, where they finished runners-up to Gujarat Titans.
2024–26
International peak and CSK move
He produced three T20I hundreds in his last five T20I innings of 2024 according to the Royals award feature, won the CEAT T20I Batter of the Year award for 2025, and moved to Chennai Super Kings ahead of IPL 2026.
Batting Analysis
- IPL runs
- 5,181 (RR official); Cricbuzz lists 5,181 in 190 matches The official Rajasthan Royals career table reports 191 matches and 5,181 runs; Cricbuzz’s profile reports 190 matches with the same runs.
- ODI batting average
- 56.67 Cricbuzz career summary, cross-checked against ESPNcricinfo’s 16-match ODI table.
- T20I runs
- 1,802 (Cricbuzz) Cricbuzz’s current profile includes matches through 22 October 2026; ESPNcricinfo’s fetched profile shows a different 1,578/73-match snapshot.
- IPL strike rate
- 141.13 (RR official) Official RR career table; Cricbuzz displays 141.14, a rounding/source-snapshot difference.
Samson’s strongest verified statistical base is franchise cricket: the RR official career table credits him with 5,181 IPL runs, 119 highest score, five hundreds and 27 fifties, while the same table shows 477 runs in IPL 2026 for Chennai Super Kings.
His international profile is more format-specific than all-round. Cricbuzz’s current table reports 510 ODI runs at 56.67 and 1,802 T20I runs at 27.72; the fetched ESPNcricinfo profile has a different T20I snapshot, so the preview does not merge the two datasets.
No reconciled phase, matchup, wagon-wheel, or delivery-type split was fetched. Bowling is treated as non-core: the current Cricbuzz and official RR bowling summaries show no bowling innings or wickets in the listed international and IPL formats.
Advanced splitsExact phase, matchup, venue, or delivery splits are not shown because no reconciled source supporting those splits was fetched.
Batting and bowling stats
Checked 22 October 2026. Retrieval date is 22 October 2026. Cricbuzz’s profile and latest-match page include the 22 October 2026 New Zealand v India T20I and report T20I 78 matches/1,802 runs, but its career summary reports IPL 190 matches; the official Rajasthan Royals profile reports IPL 191 matches/5,181 runs and a 2026 season line of 14 matches/477 runs. ESPNcricinfo’s fetched profile reports a different T20I snapshot (73 matches/1,578 runs) and IPL 191. These source cutoffs are inconsistent and no match-by-match reconciliation was attempted; the table uses Cricbuzz for T20I and RR official for IPL, with the discrepancy retained in notes. Tests are explicitly shown as 0 matches in the fetched career summaries. Unknown or undefined rate cells are Not verified; no advanced splits are inferred.
| Format | Matches | Innings | Runs | Highest | Average | Strike rate | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | 0 | 0 |
| ODIs | 16 | 14 | 510 | 108 | 56.67 | 99.61 | 1 | 3 |
| T20Is | 78 | 70 | 1,802 | 111 | 27.72 | 160.61 | 3 | 11 |
| IPL | 191 | 186 | 5,181 | 119 | 31.79 | 141.13 | 5 | 27 |
| Format | Matches | Innings | Balls | Runs conceded | Wickets | Best innings | Average | Economy | Strike rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified |
| ODIs | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified |
| T20Is | 78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified |
| IPL | 191 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified |
Statistics sources: Cricbuzz Sanju Samson profile and career summaries · ESPNcricinfo Sanju Samson profile · Rajasthan Royals official Sanju Samson IPL profile · Rajasthan Royals official 2026 trade announcement · Chennai Super Kings official IPL 2026 squad · Rajasthan Royals official CEAT Cricket Awards 2025 feature · Cricbuzz India v New Zealand 1st T20I 2026 player performance · Wikimedia Commons Sanju.Samson.jpg file page
Records & Milestones
Sanju Samson
- 5
- IPL career hundreds
- 3
- T20I hundreds
- 119
- IPL career highest
- 212*
- List A highest score
Images are archive player portraits, not photographs of the individual record innings.
IPL
Five career hundreds
5The official Rajasthan Royals IPL career table lists five hundreds in 191 matches.
T20I
Three international hundreds
3Cricbuzz lists three T20I hundreds; the Royals award feature also describes three T20I hundreds in 2024.
IPL
Highest IPL score
119His IPL career-best score is 119, shown in the official Rajasthan Royals career table.
List A
212 not out for Kerala
212*ESPNcricinfo’s profile records his 212 not out against Goa in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, described as the highest score in the tournament at the time.
Milestone timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2011 | First-class debut for Kerala v Vidarbha at Nagpur. |
| 2013 | IPL debut for Rajasthan Royals; won the season’s Best Young Player award. |
| 2015 | T20I debut for India v Zimbabwe at Harare. |
| 2021 | ODI debut for India v Sri Lanka at Colombo. |
| 2024 | Three T20I hundreds in his last five T20I innings of the year, according to the Royals award feature. |
Checked 22 October 2026. Competition and format labels apply to each record.
Best Innings
67(33)33 ballsT20I · Hagley Oval, Christchurch · 22 Oct 2026
67 off 33 and Player of the Match
Samson struck eight fours and four sixes in India’s 230/6 chase against New Zealand.
India won by 4 wickets
Performance details
11963 ballsIPL · Wankhede Stadium · 12 Apr 2021
119 off 63 against Punjab Kings
A career-best IPL hundred highlighted his attacking top-order range in the Rajasthan Royals factfile.
Rajasthan Royals match; scorecard result not restated in fetched profile
Performance details
111Not verifiedT20I · Hyderabad · 12 Oct 2024
111 against Bangladesh
His top T20I score of 111 came against Bangladesh in October 2024, one of the three hundreds cited in the Royals award feature.
India match result not restated in fetched award feature