According to Indian wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, India will continue to rule the world of cricket for many years to come. He stated that he became aware of how important it was for each member of the team to step up and put on strong performances during the World Cup.
The number one hitter in the Men T20 World Cup in 2026 was a player who had three consecutive half-centuries; this shows that he was able to perform on the knockout phase. He assisted India to go to semi-finals by crushing an invincible 97* against the West Indies. The semi-final match against England and the final match against New Zealand had a score of 89, and this led India to win the championship thrice.
“Not yet, I am still like, when I get up in the morning I’m like, ‘has it really happened’. So honestly, that’s the feeling. But I feel that in the coming years with the quality of players we have in our country, this is going to be repeated. The number of players which are coming up and India is definitely going to do this more and more often,” said Samson on the sidelines of the BCCI awards in Delhi as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
After a spectacular season in which he scored 321 runs at a strike rate of almost 200 in just five innings during the World Cup, Sanju Samson was voted Player of the Tournament. He had only participated in one game earlier in the competition. Samson also disclosed his lifelong desire of assisting India in winning a World Cup.
“You can only dream where you want to go, but you can’t definitely ride the path towards it. So my life or my career has been one of the best examples. I definitely wanted to do this a couple of years ago. I want to win a World Cup for my country, but it had its own plan, its own script. So, but more like a movie. I enjoyed it,” said Samson.
“As I said before, I wanted to do something like this, then I got pulled out of my journey, and then suddenly, the team wanted me to come and contribute, and that’s when I actually mentally flipped a bit… I think, before that, in the New Zealand series, the focus was all about myself,” he added.
The Kerala-born batter already played in two world cup winning sides: the first was the 2024 world cup and the latest one was the 2026 world cup. The 2024 edition he could not play in because seniors Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were at the batting order. However, Samson proved himself to be a great class player with key performances in the last world cup.
“But in the World Cup, the focus is all about the team, what the team requires. And in the Zimbabwe game, right from that moment, everyone wanted me to contribute. I had a role to play. So that’s when the shift happened and the confidence that, okay, ‘the team needs you, Sanju’, and let’s do what you can do the best. So that’s where everything started from. And then I had the experience, I was working mentally. I was working physically, so I knew that I’m ready, and I knew that this was meant for me, so I just had to do what I know best,” said Samson.
