New Delhi: When Sanju Samson made his international debut in 2015, he was dubbed the next big thing in Indian cricket. The talent and ability were there to see for everyone, but he astonishingly failed
to cement his place in the team. Sometimes his absence was justified, sometimes it wasn't.
Having not been selected in the T20 World Cup squads in 2016, 2021, 2022, benched for the whole tournament in 2024 and not picked in the playing XI for the first part of the 2026 edition, Samson won the battle against all odds with three impactful performances in three must-win games.
Samson entered the tournament on the back of a horror series against New Zealand. With 46 runs in five matches, he was "broke" and "completely out of my mind".
"Right after the New Zealand series, I was broke. I was completely out of my mind. I felt like my dreams had shattered. I thought, 'okay what else can I do?' But God had different plans. I suddenly came back into the crucial games, and did what I could for the country. I'm very proud and happy that I was courageous enough to dream about it and things have turned up nicely for me, so I'm really grateful," said Samson while accepting the Player of the Series award.
The turnaround: Samson's impactful performance
The failure against the Kiwis cost Samson his place in the XI to Ishan Kishan, and it was only after the wake-up call following the heavy loss to South Africa in the Super Eight that the team management shuffled the team, and Samson got the opportunity.
The Kerala batter responded with scores of 97*, 89 and 89 in three do-or-die matches to end the tournament with 321 runs, the third highest in the tournament despite playing only five games. Despite playing under immense pressure, Samson scored at a blazing strike rate of 199.37.
Samson's redemption & resilience
Samson kept toiling hard despite missing out on all the matches in the T20 World Cup 2024. Though he returned home with the winners' medal, the disappointment of not having had a chance to contribute to the team's cause sparked a fire inside Samson.
After smashing his third successive fifty, Samson revealed his turnaround began in the Americas, and the "dream" to deliver what he did in the final was born there.
"To be very honest, this entire process started one-two years before, when I was with the 2024 World Cup winning team in West Indies," he said.
"I couldn't get a game, but I kept on dreaming, kept on visualising, kept on working. This is exactly what I wanted to do then. I thought I needed to put in so much work that this is exactly what I wanted to achieve. By God's grace today things have turned around."
Despite facing countless rejections, Samson never stopped believing. On Sunday, his hard work and self-belief paid off on the biggest stage in world cricket and completed a remarkable redemption arc, which is a timeless life lesson of resilience and persistence that inspires beyond cricket.
