India spin legend Anil Kumble hailed Sanju Samson’s T20 World Cup turnaround, insisting that the wicketkeeper-batter brought India the tactical presence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to the knockout matches over the week.
After spending the first half of the tournament on the bench, Samson was roped back in to open the batting. The Kerala batter made a sensational streak with three successive fifties, starting with India’s virtual knock-out Super 8 match against the West Indies in Kolkata. Scoring an unbeaten 97, Samson went onto headline the semi-final with a 89-run knock before producing the same figures in the finals. Samson thereby shattered multiple records, including the highest individual score by a player in the final of a T20 World Cup.
Samson’s mature strokeplay meant he also joined Kohli as only the Indians to score a fifty in both the semi-finals and finals of a World Cup edition, also surpassing the former India captain for most runs in a single edition for India, registering 321 runs in only five innings.
“If you look at the previous World Cup in 2024, it had Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Both are great players, very difficult to replace them. I think Samson is a combination of Kohli and Rohit, in a sense. When it required a little bit of Kohli, where you just plan and ensure that you don’t lose wickets. And then whenever you need to accelerate, in the powerplay, you want to take on the bowlers [like Rohit],” Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo.
While he brought consistency to the fore, Samson did not relinquish his big-hitting prowess. As India became the first team to smash 100 sixes in a World Cup edition, Samson accounted for a quarter of them, crunching 24 maximums, the highest ever by a batter in a World Cup series.
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis also lauded Samson’s gameplan on his way to being named the Player of the Tournament.
“What you can see is a guy that is in form and really true to the way that he wants to play. It looks like I am watching the previous innings again. It’s just the game plan on display,” remarked du Plessis.
“You can see how clear he is in what is his strengths and the areas where he doesn’t want to score. His tempo is so beautiful. It doesn’t feel like he is trying to overhit the ball.”
