Sanju Samson revealed on Sunday he has been in constant touch with Sachin Tendulkar during his tough times after India lifted the T20 World Cup 2026 title, beating New Zealand by 96 runs in the final in Ahmedabad. Samson, who didn’t get to play a single game during the last edition, grabbed the Player of the Series award with 321 runs.
One of the most destructive openers for India in the shortest format, Samson was going through a lean patch before the T20 World Cup, in the New Zealand series at home. With Ishan Kishan coming in, Samson was dropped on the bench as the tournament began.
Although he played against Namibia in group stages after Abhishek Sharma was unwell, the Kerala batter was benched once again once the latter came returned against Pakistan. But the Almighty had other plans for Samson. With Abhishek out of form, Samson was brought back into the playing XI.
If his 15-ball was a trailer, Samson showed why India needed him as the right hander scored 97 not out (against West Indies), and identical 89s in the semifinal (England) and final (against New Zealand). All three were match-winning knocks, laying the platform at the top for rest of batting to come.
Samson revealed that he was completely broken after the series against New Zealand. “Very happy, very grateful. A lot emotions and going through it but very happy, out of words. This started 1-2 years before, in the 2024 World Cup winning team, I couldn’t play a game. I kept working, visualizing, dreaming. This is what I wanted, god is good,” Samson said after the game.
“After the NZ series, I was broken, my dreams were shattered, I was thinking what I could do, Very proud I was courageous enough to dream about it and make it happen in this tournament,” added Samson.
Speaking about his tough time, Samson couldn’t hold back but to reveal Tendulkar’s name. “A lot of guidance and suggestions from the Indian team have helped me figure things out. Last couple of months, I hope I can share it here, I have been in constant touch with Sachin sir. I thought about what is the mindset required, I reached out to sir and had huge conversations with him. Even yesterday he asked me how am I feeling,” he revealed.
Records galore for Sanju Samson
Earlier, Samson’s 89 was the highest individual score in a t20 World Cup final, surpassing Marlon Samuels’ 85 not out against England in the 2016 T20 World Cup final and New Zealand star Kane Williamson’s 85 against Australia in the 2021 edition final.
He also went past Virat Kohli to become the batter with the most runs in a single T20 World Cup and also joined Virat and Shahid Afridi in an elite list of batters with fifties in T20 World Cup semifinal and final both. During his innings, Samson played 46 balls with five fours and eight sixes.
