Sanju Samson says he didn't believe Rohit Sharma's message on T20 World Cup struggles: ‘I wasn’t able to see…'
Sanju Samson, who was out of favour in the first half of the 2026 T20 World Cup, ended the tournament with 321 runs from five matches.
Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson wasn't a definite starter for India at the start of the 2026 T20 World Cup. Earlier in the tournament, he played in the group stage match against Namibia in place of Abhishek Sharma, who was ruled out due to illness.
Sanju Samson managed to score just 22 runs from eight balls in that match, and didn't get another game until the Super 8 clash against Zimbabwe in Chennai. He failed to convert once again, scoring just 24 runs from 15 balls. However, it is after this match that the 31-year-old turned things around.
He stepped up for India when it mattered the most, and registered scores of 97*, 89 and 89 against West Indies, England (semi-final) and New Zealand (Final) to take home the Player of the Tournament award with 321 runs from five matches.
Rohit Sharma, the former India skipper, had attempted to console Samson whenever the latter hardly got chances. “Don’t be disheartened, brother. It is a long tournament. You’ll get your chance. The opportunity can come anytime," he had said.
Samson didn't initially believe Rohit
And now, Sanju Samson had said that he initially didn't believe Rohit Sharma since he wasn't "able to see what Rohit Sharma was seeing". “To be honest, I didn’t believe him at that time. Sorry. He might have spoken from his heart or from his experience, but that day I wasn’t able to see what he was seeing," Samson said on JioStar.
“Our World Cup campaign started two days after the New Zealand series, and it takes me at least a week to recover. I don’t like to bottle things up, so it shows on my face if I’m not feeling 100 per cent. I went through that phase for four or five days before getting myself back on track," he added.
The Trivandrum-born cricketer then started asking himself questions and began working on himself mentally. “You know you’ve failed, so what’s next? You’re at the bottom, so from there, you can only go up. I started working on myself mentally. I started asking myself questions, why do I play cricket? What’s my purpose? It was like I was rediscovering myself while the World Cup was going on. And then everything just came back," he stated.
After the T20 World Cup, Samson turned up for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2026 and scored 477 runs from 14 matches at a strike-rate of 165.62.
However, he once again endured a poor run of form, registering scores of 5 and 0 against Ireland, and 1 and 27 against England. Samson was not picked for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe.