Sanju Samson: Sanju Samson played an important role in India’s historic victory in the T20 World Cup 2026 and was elected Player of the Tournament. As soon as he returned to Thiruvananthapuram on Monday after the World Cup victory, he got a warm welcome like a hero. Kerala Education Minister V. Shivankutty welcomed him at the airport, while hundreds of fans gathered and raised slogans of ‘Sanju-Sanju’. During this, Sanju Samson made a big revelation and told how he returned to form.
This is how Sanju Samson returned to form
While talking to the media at the airport, Samson revealed that he had adopted a completely different plan for this World Cup, which brought back his lost form. Actually, he was a complete flop in the 5-match T20 series played against New Zealand before the T20 World Cup. Talking about his poor performance in this series, he said, ‘Earlier I used to try to hit big shots on every ball, but this method did not work. Learned lessons after facing many failures. In the five-match series against New Zealand, I focused on increasing the strike rate, but did not get results. In the end, I prepared a new game plan before the World Cup, which proved to be a game-changer for me.
25 minute phone call helped a lot
Samson described Sachin Tendulkar’s help as the biggest support in his bad times. He said that he was in constant touch with Sachin sir for some time. During IPL, apart from meetings, we also kept talking through messages. When his form was at its worst, the first name that came to his mind was Sachin. Samson said, ‘I contacted him and he had a heart-to-heart talk for about 25 minutes. Shared the difficult times of his career, his way of thinking, his practices and his experiences of dealing with situations. His advice gave me new energy and clarity. Let us tell you, Sanju Samson had talked to Sachin even before the final match.
Scored half centuries in 3 consecutive matches
Sanju Samson was not Team India’s first choice in the T20 World Cup due to poor form. They got a chance to play only 1 match in the group stage, then Abhishek Sharma did not take part in the match due to ill health. But, in the Super 8, the team had to change its combination, due to which he returned to the playing 11. Sanju Samson took full advantage of this opportunity and became the biggest hero of the team by scoring a total of 321 runs in 5 matches. He played an important inning of 89 runs in the final. Earlier, he had scored half-centuries in the do-or-die match against West Indies and then in the semi-final also.
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