Sanju Viswanath Samson (born 11 November 1994) is an Indian international cricketer from Kerala, a wicketkeeper and top-order batter known for the ease with which he hits sixes. For years regarded as a great talent denied a settled place in the Indian side, he became in 2024 the first Indian to score three Twenty20 international centuries in a calendar year, and in 2026 was Player of the Tournament as India won the T20 World Cup. He captained Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League for five seasons before moving to Chennai Super Kings.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Sanju Viswanath Samson |
| Born | 11 November 1994, Pulluvila, Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala |
| Age | 31 |
| Role | Wicketkeeper-batter |
| Batting | Right-handed |
| International debut | T20I: July 2015; ODI: July 2021 |
| Domestic team | Kerala |
| IPL teams | Rajasthan Royals (2013–2015, 2018–2025); Delhi (2016–2017); Chennai Super Kings (2026– ) |
| Spouse | Charulatha Remesh (m. 2018) |
Early Life
Samson was born in the fishing village of Pulluvila, near Vizhinjam. His father, Samson Viswanath, was a constable in the Delhi Police who had played football for Delhi, and Sanju spent his early childhood in a police colony in north Delhi, where he began playing cricket. When he failed to win a place in Delhi’s under-13 side his father took voluntary retirement and moved the family back to Kerala so that his sons could pursue the game there. Sanju studied at St. Joseph’s school and Mar Ivanios College in Thiruvananthapuram, made runs heavily in age-group cricket and played first-class cricket for Kerala at seventeen.
IPL
He joined Rajasthan Royals in 2013 and, at eighteen, became the youngest player to score a half-century in the league; he was named its emerging player that season, with Rahul Dravid as his captain and mentor. He played for Delhi in 2016 and 2017, scoring his first IPL hundred, and returned to Rajasthan in 2018.
He was appointed captain in 2021 and began with 119 against Punjab. In 2022 he led the Royals to the final, their first since they won the inaugural tournament. In November 2025 he was traded to Chennai Super Kings in an exchange that sent Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan, one of the biggest deals in the league’s history. In 2026 he was Chennai’s leading scorer with 477 runs, including two centuries, and passed 5,000 runs in the league.
India
He made his T20 international debut in Zimbabwe in July 2015, at twenty, and then did not play for India again for more than four years. For most of the next decade he was in and out of the side, the subject of constant argument among supporters, especially in Kerala. He made his one-day debut in 2021 and scored his first international hundred, 108, against South Africa at Paarl in December 2023. He was a member of the squad that won the T20 World Cup in 2024 without playing a match.
Given a run as an opener later that year, he made 111 from 47 balls against Bangladesh in Hyderabad and followed it with two centuries in four matches in South Africa. He was part of the team that won the Asia Cup in 2025.
At the T20 World Cup of February and March 2026, held in India and Sri Lanka, he scored 321 runs at a strike rate of almost 200, hit 26 sixes, made 89 from 42 balls in the semi-final against England and was named Player of the Tournament as India retained the title.
Style
A tall, still batter with fast hands, he is at his best hitting straight and over the leg side with little apparent effort. As a captain he was known for calm and for backing young players.
Personal Life
He married Charulatha Remesh, whom he had met at college, in December 2018.
Featured image: Sanju Samson with the Kerala team, November 2017. Photo by Anand Anil, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
