India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir admitted that leaving out Samson in England was the toughest decision of his coaching tenure. After returning with three low scores on the UK tour, including two against Ireland, Samson was dropped from the playing XI in the second T20I against England.

Eventually, Samson played two out of the five games against England. Subsequently, Samson was not picked for the tour of Zimbabwe. However, the Indian opener made a promising comeback against Afghanistan, scoring two fifties in a three-match series.

Samson scored 57 runs off just 22 balls in the second game of the series whereas he scored 50 runs off 35 balls in the third match on Thursday.

“I think his talent itself is enough for him to be in the dressing room,” Gambhir said of Samson in the post-match press conference. “Someone doesn’t become a player of the tournament in a World Cup without not having a talent. So, he’s done enough.

“Obviously, it was tough [leaving him out in the UK]. Probably the toughest decision I’ve taken in my coaching tenure is obviously leaving him out in that England series. Because obviously, the way he’s performed before that. But again, sometimes you go with players’ form as well.”

Gambhir explained that the plan all along had been to return to the World Cup-winning combination. “We were always very clear. From my point of view, I was very clear that we want to go back to the combination that we had during the World Cup. Because those guys, after three or four failures, do not become bad players. And the kind of cricket we’ve played, if a team that has gone unbeaten from one World Cup to the other World Cup and has won the World Cup, I’m sure it’s a gun team. Suddenly, it doesn’t become a bad team after one or two series. And these guys do not become bad players after two or three failures. That is what these guys have shown here as well.”

Samson will be next seen in action in the Asian Games.