AHMEDABAD: There have been subtle changes for the better in Sanju Samson’s game. The T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament now has remarkable stability when playing the shots or charging the bowler. Gone is the nervous, twitchy version of Samson we saw earlier.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!The changes can be attributed to a lean run in the pre-World Cup T20I series against New Zealand, which led to his omission from the team and prompted some serious introspection.With opposition teams targeting India’s off-spin at the start of the over to neutralize left-armer Abhishek Sharma’s hitting power, and with Rinku Singh being underutilized in the order, India adjusted their line-up and brought in Sanja.
Dhol, health and flowers: How Delhi welcomed Gautam Gambhir
Suddenly, the pieces seemed to fall into place and India had the perfect batting order for the occasion. Samson smashed three crucial, back-to-back half-centuries, was India’s leading run-scorer with 321 runs from five innings and arguably found the kind of consistency that had eluded him for long stretches of his career.Now, Samson is also India’s leading run-scorer in a single edition of the T20 World Cup.READ ALSO: Team India report card: A perfect end to a not-so-perfect T20 World Cup campaign“Once we brought him (back), the game completely changed (for us),” captain Suryakumar Yadav said.“He started batting differently. That was a positive challenge for him. I saw him working very hard. When someone is not playing, what he does (off the field) is more important. He did everything he could for the team when he was not playing. The last three to four innings he batted for the team is the result of all the hard work he put in,” Surya said, highlighting the tough innings at the nets.One of Samson’s early coaches, Biju George, told TOI, “Every batsman makes minor adjustments in a long tournament. He just believed in his ability and backed himself. He kept batting straight and strong.”Sanju’s bat now has a distinct clarity that it previously lacked. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said Samson had earlier changed his approach from the bilateral series.“Unfortunately for us, he was saving runs in the World Cup. In a few of those matches he looked like he was trying to hit one ball. Now he took a chance, bowled a few balls. On these wickets, when you’re in the game, you can really cash in,” Santner said.
