Sanju Samson: 97 Not Out, And 97 Questions Finally Answered
Sanju Samson's unbeaten 97 wasn’t just a match-winning knock; it was the long-awaited answer to a career that has forever hovered between promise and proof
Published : March 2, 2026 at 1:24 PM IST
By Meenakshi Rao
Kolkata: When Sanju Samson walked out at Eden Gardens, the noise was not just about a must-win chase of 196. It was the sound of a career at a crossroads. And when he walked back, unbeaten on 97, India were in the semifinals of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, and a decade-long argument about him had finally found an answer.
Or had it? Because Samson’s career has never been about the runs he scores. It has always been about the runs he should have scored, the chances he should have got, the place he should have owned.
And then he played an innings that asked no permission at Eden Gardens. Gautam Gambhir called it "just normal cricketing shots". That is precisely what made it extraordinary. There was no slogging, no desperation, no frantic attempt to justify selection. Just stillness, balance and the softest hands in a chase that demanded steel. Against the West Indies' 195, Samson did not attack the target. He dissolved it.
He began with control, accelerated with head down focus, and finished with inevitability. A strike rate that flirted with a high at one stage, then dipped, then rose again — not because he was chasing numbers, but because he was reading the game.
In Gambhir's words, this was not about skill. It was about "absorbing pressure". And that is where the innings becomes more than numbers. It becomes a biography.
For years, Samson has been Indian cricket's favourite paradox. A batter whose Indian Premier League (IPL) numbers — nearly 4000 runs at a strike rate north of 137 for Rajasthan Royals — scream inevitability, yet whose international T20 record has most often whispered hesitation.
He debuted in 2015. He scored his first international hundred in 2023. He produced starts that teased and exits that frustrated. Selectors oscillated. Fans debated. Competition suffocated — Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, the immovable No.3 Virat Kohli, and finishers like Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh. In that crowd, Samson was always either too early or too late. Rarely just right.
Until this night.
Gambhir's most revealing line was not about the innings. It was about the conversations. He spoke of giving Samson a break after a difficult New Zealand series, of backing him in nets, of waiting for a World Cup game "when we need him". That "when we need him" is the pivot of Samson's story.
He has often been tried when India was comfortable. He delivered when India was desperate. Against Zimbabwe, a 20-odd that restored rhythm. Against the West Indies, a 97 that restored belief.
Watch the footwork. Ask Sanju, insists his batting coach Sitanshu Kotak. That little shuffle across the off stump to access the leg side. The still head while lofting inside-out. The late cuts played almost as an afterthought. These are not the strokes of a hitter. These are the movements of a player who trusts time.
And for Samson, time has been both ally and adversary. At 31, the "potential" tag should have expired. Yet here he was, making the most important innings of India's campaign. Perhaps the delay was the lesson.
What does this 97 really change? It changes the conversation from whether he belongs to how India uses him. Because now the template exists: Samson as a high-pressure anchor who can accelerate without panic. A batter who can float between No. 3 and finisher, who can keep wickets, who can absorb a chase at venues like Eden Gardens, where, as Gambhir says, "the game is never out of control".
It also reframes the selection dilemma. The Samson vs Kishan debate is no longer about promise versus form. It is about role versus role. And in tournaments, roles win trophies.
Samson's story is not just about Samson. It is about Indian cricket's abundance. About how a player with a 50-plus ODI average and three T20 international hundreds can still fight for a place. About how excellence is no longer enough. It must be timely. On Sunday night in Kolkata, Samson was timely.
But when it's Samson, questions always linger. Is this the beginning of a new chapter or the finest page in an unfinished book? Gambhir hopes it is the former: "Hopefully this is the time for him to kick off," he says.
Team India will hope so too, as they travel to Mumbai for a semifinal against England. But for one night, none of that matters. For one night, the boy from Keralam who was always "almost there" was finally, completely, emphatically there. And the applause that followed his unbeaten 97 was not just for a match-winning innings. It was for a journey that refused to end before it found its moment.
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