The batter, who has long struggled to translate potential into performance on a consistent basis, underlines the credibility by dragging India into T20 World Cup a knockout semi-final for the ages.KOLKATA: Has Sanju Samson finally cemented a permanent place in India’s T20 XI? Head coach Gautam Gambhir certainly hopes so, after a brilliant unbeaten 97 against the West Indies at the Eden Gardens on Sunday, an innings that took India to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!After West Indies made 195/4, India cruised home with four balls to spare – and Samson was at the center of the chase. That Tilak Varma’s 27 was the next best contribution shows the huge role Samson played in holding India’s innings together in a high-pressure game. On a night when the target kept looming and wickets kept breaking the momentum, India needed Samson to come good. He did so in a great way.
How Mr. Cool Sanju Samson shot India to the semi-finals of the World Cup
Samson knew he had created something special. “It means the world to me,” he said during the post-match presentation. “Since the day I started playing, this is the knock I’ve been waiting for. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs, I kept doubting myself and thinking ‘will I make it’? But I’m thankful to the almighty for blessing me today.”Gambhir reiterated that he always believed in the Kerala batter. “Today was the day he probably showed his true potential. And hopefully it’s time for him to start,” the coach said.Samson has been out of the team more often than in it since his debut against Zimbabwe in 2015. In fact, after his 19-goal debut, he had to wait until 2020 to make a comeback. Even then, he remained a stopgap option, only used when someone was injured or rested. Even though he has three hundreds and four fifties in his 60-match T20I career, skeptics would still point to his strings of single-digit or low double-digit scores to argue that he never lived up to his potential. However, Gambhir pointed out that even some of those low scores matter, such as the 24 against Zimbabwe in Chennai in the previous match.“People will still look at his scores and stuff, but then to come back into the team and play 23-24 innings like that must have given him a lot of confidence,” Gambhir said. He needed that confidence after a tense series against New Zealand in which he managed just 46 runs from five matches.“When there are bad patches, you have to give yourself some time,” said batting coach Sitanshu Kotak. “We know Samson is a top class batsman and this innings was from him.Kotak admitted that Samson was drafted into the playing XI because India had three left-handers at the top and were losing wickets early with off-spinners. “We felt we had to do something different, and everyone believed in Samson,” he said. In many ways, Samson was in full control of Sunday’s innings: no rash shots, no visible panic – just a methodical tightening of his grip on the chase, with the target always in sight. “I actually thought he never got the innings going,” Gambhir said. “They were just very normal cricket shots and I never saw any muscle balls.Samson’s innings drew praise from the opposing camp as well, with West Indies captain Shai Hope giving him an ‘A-plus’. “You have to give a guy credit when he plays really well,” Hope said. “(Samson) was shooting the ball very nicely from the beginning to the end of the innings and he was hitting really well. He was very smart and calculating with how he made his shots. I wish he didn’t play this innings against us.”It was also a telling sight: Suryakumar Yadav took off his cap and bowed to Samson days after laughingly wondering how he could get the Kerala cricketer to play in place of Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma.7 – India have won all seven T20Is in which Sanju Samson has scored 50+ (three 100s, four 50s).
7 – Sanju is one of only 7 batsmen to score two consecutive hundreds in T20Is – 111 vs B’desh on 12 October and 107 vs SA on 8 November (both in 2024). The other six are France’s Gustav McKeon, SA’s Rilee Rossouw, England’s Phil Salt, India’s Tilak Varma, Samoa’s Darius Visser and Spain’s Mohammad Ishan.
1 – Sanju Samson’s match-winning 97 off 50 balls against the West Indies at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on March 1, 2026 is his first fifty in the chase in 18 innings in T20Is. His previous high was 39 vs. Sri Lanka in Dharamsala on 26 February 2022.
1 – Sanju Samson is the only opening batsman to score two hundreds against South Africa in T20Is – 107 off 50 balls at Kingsmead, Durban on 8 November 2024 and 109* off 56 balls at Johannesburg on 15 November 2024.
—Stats: Rajesh Kumar
