‘I Can Be Villain, Joker’: Sanju Samson Inspired By Mohanlal For India Role Change | Cricket News

Sanju Samson is taking inspiration from Malayalam cinema legend Mohanlal Viswanathan for accepting a change of role in the Indian men’s T20I team. On Wednesday, speaking ahead of India’s Asia Cup 2025 Super-Four match against Bangladesh, he said that just like Mohanlal, he has accepted that every role he plays can’t be one of the ‘hero’ but also ‘villain’ or ‘joker’, and he’s up for all equally for the country.

Samson was India’s first-choice opener in the lead-up to the 2025 Asia Cup and hit three centuries in the process, the third-most for the country. However, the selectors brought in Shubman Gill and made him the vice-captain for the multi-nation tournament, effectively breaking the Samson-Abhishek Sharma partnership. The team didn’t drop Samson, but has demoted him to a middle-order job.

Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar asked him the question head-on, wondering what Samson thought his best position was. And his reply initially confused the broadcaster, but made complete sense eventually.

“See, there’s our actor, Mohanlal, who got a big award from the Indian government. He has been an actor for 20 years. I have been playing for India for 10 years. So, I can’t come in and say I want to do the ‘hero’ role every time. I can do the villain role, and I can also do the Joker role for my country,” Samson said on Sony Sports Network.

Mohanlal was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema, in the recent 71st National Film Awards.

Samson would hope to find any comparable success in the remainder of the Asia Cup. He didn’t get to bat in the team’s first two matches against the UAE and Pakistan.

The opportunity had to be manufactured against Oman, where captain Suryakumar Yadav demoted himself and sent Samson up at number three. The Rajasthan Royals star scored 56 runs but looked scratchy. He was back to the middle-order against Pakistan on Sunday but could only manage 13 runs in the chase.

The team has backed him so far, with assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate accepting that Samson was still learning the role. However, it needs to be seen how long they would stick with him.