From warming the bench to setting new benchmarks: Sanju Samson's redemption arc reaffirms that what’s meant for you never passes you by
Sanju Samson (Source: BCCI)
Published - 09 Mar 2026, 10:11 PM• Read time - 4 mins
Shubman Gill’s omission from India’s T20 World Cup squad opened two doors. It restored Sanju Samson to his preferred role as opener and ended Ishan Kishan's exile. What followed was a sequence of events that would test Samson’s temperament, ultimately scripting one of the most dramatic turnarounds in India’s T20 World Cup history.
India began their final phase of preparation with a five-match T20I series against New Zealand at home. Samson’s return to the top, however, unravelled quickly. Scores of 10, 6, 0, and 24 left him visibly drained of confidence. The final match in Thiruvananthapuram, his hometown, was supposed to break the rut, a place where crowd energy could lift him out of his slump.
Instead, it became another reminder of how far he had fallen. A run-a-ball six, followed by a mistimed drive off a 146 kph length ball from Lockie Ferguson, which flew to deep third and was snaffled safely by Bevon Jacobs, and a hush fell over the stadium as he walked back, head down.
To make matters worse, Ishan Kishan, the man he was indirectly competing with, struck a century in that game, effectively ending the debate between him and Sanju.
His worst fear materialised when India chose Ishan to open with Abhishek Sharma in their T20 World Cup opener against the USA at the Wankhede. Samson was on the outside again, just like the 2024 T20 World Cup, watching from the sidelines.
When Abhishek Sharma was ruled out of the Namibia game with a stomach bug, Samson finally walked out without the weight that had been dragging him down, no baggage, no fear of looking over his shoulder, just the freedom to swing. He blasted 22 off eight balls, hitting 6, 6, 4 before picking out deep midwicket in search of a fourth consecutive boundary.
It was a spark, but not enough to keep Abhishek out once he returned, and Samson sat out against Pakistan, Netherlands, and South Africa. And as cricket often works, opportunities tend to appear in the most unexpected ways. When Rinku Singh had to step away due to a health scare involving his father, the opening surfaced again, a quiet reminder that in sport, one man’s misfortune can become another’s chance.
Samson made 24 off 15, another bright start that stopped short of becoming something substantial. But this time, the team management chose to back him, keeping him in the XI for the must-win Super Eight clash against the West Indies in Kolkata. That decision changed everything.
Samson produced the innings of his life, a tactically well-paced 97* in a chase of 196, India’s highest successful pursuit in T20 World Cup history. He followed it with an 89 off 42 in the semifinal against England, a Player of the Match performance that powered India into the final.
And then came the crowning act. Samson’s 89 against New Zealand in the final was the highest score ever in a men’s T20 World Cup final, eclipsing Marlon Samuels’ 85 in 2016. He became only the third batter to score fifties in both the semifinal and final of a men’s T20 World Cup, joining Shahid Afridi (2009) and Virat Kohli (2014).
His numbers tell the story of a tournament transformed by one man’s resurgence:
- 321 runs: the most by an India batter in a men’s T20 World Cup, surpassing Kohli’s 319 in 2014
- Third-highest tally in the edition (behind Sahibzada Farhan’s 383 and Tim Seifert’s 326, both in this World Cup)
- 178 runs in the semifinal and final combined, the most by any batter in a single edition, overtaking Kohli’s 149 in 2014
- 24 sixes, the most in a single T20 World Cup edition
But the numbers only tell half the story. The emotional arc is what defined Samson’s campaign. He admitted openly that the New Zealand series had broken him, that his dreams felt shattered. And yet he kept visualising, kept preparing, kept believing.
His words after the final captured the journey better than any statistic could.
"Feels like a dream. Very happy and grateful. Out of words, out of emotions. [On his three fifties, thought process] To be honest, it started one-two years before. When I was in the 2024 World Cup team where I didn't play, I kept visualising, kept on working and this was exactly what I wanted to do. After the NZ series I was broken, my dreams were completely shattered. And I was thinking what can I do. But God had different plans. And I was rewarded for being brave enough to dream."
From being benched, doubted, and overshadowed, to becoming the heartbeat of India’s title run, Samson's World Cup campaign isn’t merely a comeback. It is a reminder that sometimes the most compelling stories are written by those who refuse to stop dreaming, even when the world stops believing.
