Sanju Samson finally got his World Cup moment in Ahmedabad and made absolutely sure nobody would forget it

India won the T20 World Cup 2026 final in Ahmedabad on Sunday night and the celebrations that followed went on for a long time. More than 86000 people were inside the Narendra Modi Stadium. The noise did not stop even after the last ball was bowled. Players stayed on the ground long after the game was done, not wanting the moment to end. But when things quietened down and people started going over what had just happened, the name that kept coming up was not the captain or the bowlers. It was Sanju Samson.

Sanju Samson has been around Indian cricket since 2015. In those eleven years, he has been picked and dropped, and picked and dropped, more times than most players experience in an entire career. He was in the World Cup 2024 squad in the West Indies and did not play a single game. Sanju Samson sat in the stands in Barbados and watched India win and went home still without a World Cup winners’ medal to his name.

This year in Ahmedabad, he got one. And he made absolutely sure he earned it.

The T20 World Cup that almost did not happen for Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson did not start the World Cup 2026 in the playing eleven, except for the game against Namibia. The series against New Zealand in January had not gone well, and when the tournament began, the management went with Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan at the top of the order. Samson sat out the first few games. It was a familiar feeling. Watching from the outside while others played in a tournament he had worked so hard to be part of.

It is worth thinking about what kind of player was sitting out. Someone who had scored three T20 international centuries in 2024, more than any Indian batsman that year. Someone who had been in the World Cup 2024 squad and had not batted once across the whole tournament. Someone who had been in and out of the Indian team since 2015 and had spent years being told he was good enough to be in the squad but not quite good enough to play. Most people would have given up a long time before this point.

The change came in the Super 8s. Other teams had worked out that India’s top order had too many left-handers and started using off-spin to make life difficult. The left-handers were struggling to deal with it and the management needed someone right-handed at the top who could handle spin and attack it from the start. There was really only one option.

Sanju Samson came back in. And from that point, the tournament was his.

Also READ: The night India won, and the cricket world reacted

Three innings that changed everything

The 97 not out against West Indies at Eden Gardens was where it started. Fifty balls, not out, calm and in control from the first over. It went past Virat Kohli’s record for the highest score by an Indian in a T20 World Cup chase, but it did not look like someone going after a record. It looked like someone who had simply decided to bat without worrying about anything else.

The semi-final against England at the Wankhede was on a different level. Eighty-nine off 42 balls against Jofra Archer and others. Seven sixes. Sanju Samson set the base for India’s 253 for 7 right from the start and by the time he was out, England had a mountain to climb. They almost got there, but not quite.

Then came the final in Ahmedabad. Another 89, this time off 46 balls. A new record for the highest individual score in a T20 World Cup final, going past Marlon Samuels’ 85. In front of 86,000 people on the biggest night of his life, he walked out and batted like someone who had done this a hundred times before.

97*, 89, and 89. Three knockout games and three match-winning innings when India needed them most.

Virat Kohli’s record and Sachin Tendulkar’s call

The numbers from the tournament tell the full story. Three hundred and twenty-one runs, the most any Indian batsman has scored in a single T20 World Cup, going past Kohli’s 319 from 2014. An average of 80.25. A strike rate of 199.37, the best of any batsman who scored more than 200 runs. Twenty-four sixes, more than anyone else in a single edition. Every number at the top of every list.

After the final, Sanju Samson spoke about something he had not mentioned during the tournament. When Samson was dropped in late 2025, and things felt uncertain, he called Sachin Tendulkar. Not to talk about batting. To talk about how to handle being left out, how to stay ready, and how to keep going when the opportunities are not coming. Tendulkar spoke to him then and called the night before the final again. Just to check in. Just to keep things calm before the biggest game of his career.

“I hope I can share it here, from last couple of months, I have been in constant touch with Sachin sir,” Sanju Samson said at the post-match presentation. “When I was sitting outside in Australia, I was not playing a game, so I thought about, ‘okay, what is the mindset required now?. So I reached out to sir and I had big conversations with him, and even yesterday, he called me up to check ‘how am I feeling?’ If I’m getting guidance from someone like him, what more can I ask for? That clarity, that game preparation, that game awareness, that game sense.. I think I’m very grateful for everyone who supported me.”

Eleven years. Two World Cup squads without a game in third-fourth. Barbados 2024 in the stands. And then Ahmedabad on Sunday night, where Sanju Samson walked out in a World Cup final, made 89 off 46 balls, lifted the trophy, and won Player of the Tournament.

It was a long time coming. But it came.