3 min readMar 3, 2026 05:27 PM IST
Sanju Samson finally found his feet in the T20 World Cup at probably the time when India needed a big knock from him the most. Samson’s unbeaten 97 in 50 balls played a leading role in India beating the West Indies in their final match of the Super Eights which helped them seal qualification to the semifinals. Samson had been caught in a bit of a rut for a while before that innings, which led to him being left out in quite a few of India’s matches in this tournament.
After the innings against the West Indies, the International Cricket Council (ICC) put up a video on their social media handles for Samson and a clip from that has now gone viral. The clip shows Rohit Sharma, who is the ICC’s ambassador for this year’s tournament, giving a few words of encouragement to Samson ahead of India’s opening match against the USA. “Kaisa hai? Dukhi mat ho bhai. It is a long tournament, kabhi bhi mauka aa sakta hai. (“Don’t be disheartened. It is a long tournament. You’ll get your chance. The opportunity can come anytime),” Rohit can be heard telling Samson.
Samson had been earmarked as India’s first-choice opener and wicketkeeper back when they had announced the squad for the tournament in December, pipping the team’s then-vice-captain Shubman Gill at the top of the order. However, then came a string of low scores in India’s five-match series against New Zealand, coupled with wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan hitting top form.
This led to India having a rethink about Samson’s role and Kishan ended up taking his opening spot with Abhishek Sharma and wicketkeepers’ gloves as well. Samson did play two matches in the tournament, first stepping in for the hospitalised Abhishek in their group-stage match against Namibia and then in the Super Eights against Zimbabwe, which was the match in which India bounced back after their heavy defeat against South Africa.
The match on Sunday was a virtual knockout with both sides in with a chance of reaching the last four had they won it. West Indies batted first and set up a mammoth target of 196 for India to chase. It was India’s highest succesfull in their T20 World Cup history and Samson himself broke Virat Kohli’s record for highest score by a player from the country in a run chase in the tournament.
Gambhir acknowledged after the match that Samson had to be given a break after the series against New Zealand. “Obviously he had a tough series against New Zealand, so sometimes it’s important to give him a break as well, because you want to get the guy off that pressure situation as well. And we always knew that whenever we needed him in the World Cup game, he’ll come and deliver it for us,” Gambhir told reporters.
