India captain Suryakumar Yadav has revealed how Sanju Samson displayed a team mindset during India’s 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup winning campaign. Although he started the tournament on the bench, Samson turned to the captain with a simple request, asking what he could do to help the team.
Samson eventually emerged as one of the defining figures of the Indian titlewhich delivers the winning shots in the knockout stages. But his World Cup journey began away from the limelight as India experimented with combinations early in the tournament. In an interview with JioStar’s ‘Follow The Blues’, Suryakumar explained that managing players who were not given regular opportunities was one of the most difficult aspects of managing the team.
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“In this T20 World Cup campaign, the hardest thing for me to handle are the players who don’t get many opportunities to feature in the playing XI. Those who don’t get chances or get very few chances, I always felt I should spend more time with them,” Suryakumar said.
“The ones who keep playing are on autopilot. They know what to do. But the ones who can play anytime but don’t get to every game, it’s hard for them to turn on and off. Spending time with them and talking to them all the time was very important.”
“Sanju Samson didn’t start the tournament. He came in the middle and said one thing, ‘Just tell me what I can do for the team.’ That is the greatest blessing. Players like these, from number 1 to 15, each have a different story.”
HOW SANJU SAMSON T20 WORLD CUP DID
The wicket-keeper batsman started the tournament out of the playing eleven as the team management tried different combinations during the first matches. However, when the knockout stages arrived, Samson was given a key role at the top of the order.
He responded in spectacular fashion.
Samson first smashed an unbeaten 97 against the West Indies cricket team in a must-win Super 8 clash in Kolkata. The innings kept India’s campaign alive and signaled the start of his remarkable run in the tournament.
He followed it up with another big knock, scoring 89 in the semi-final and another 89 in the final to help India win the title.
In just five innings, Samson amassed 321 runs, the most by an Indian in a single edition of the T20 World Cup.
Despite coming close to centuries against the West Indies and England, Samson brushed off questions about personal milestones and insisted the team’s success was much more important.
By the end of the tournament, his influence was undeniable as Samson was named player of the tournament despite only playing five matches in India’s triumphant campaign.
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Issued by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
11 March 2026 15:37 IST
