Sanju Samson 97 vs West Indies: Trigger Fixed, Balance Restored in India Opener’s Rebirth

Stillness. It’s always been a defining feature of Sanju Samson’s batting. Perhaps even the defining feature. And it seemed to have deserted him at the most inconvenient time. A T20 World Cup was around the corner, and he was all set to start it as India’s first-choice opener-keeper. He had been part of the squad that won the 2024 edition, but he had spent all of it on the bench. This was going to be his time.

The Horror Rut

Except he fell into the worst kind of rut. Not merely one of low scores, but one featuring a recurring pattern of technical issues leading to early dismissal. He wasn’t just getting out early but getting out in similar ways, to similar kinds of delivery. Worst of all, he was radiating not stillness but a sense of hurried, harried movements.

Between that series against New Zealand and Sunday night’s virtual T20 World Cup quarter-final against West Indies, Samson had been out of India’s starting XI, then briefly in, then out again, and finally back in. Somewhere amid those ins and outs, though, the stillness had returned.

Samson’s T20 World Cup 2025 Journey

The Shot That Signaled Return

On Sunday, facing the second ball of the seventh over of India’s chase of 196 against West Indies, Samson seemed to stand still and wait interminably for the ball to arrive. And then he did what he does so well and with such apparent simplicity that its difficulty only becomes clear in the periods when he’s out of rhythm: hitting good balls into unexpected areas.

This was one of those middle-overs balls of mostly defensive intent: hard length, climbing awkwardly, in this case aided by Jason Holder’s height, and hidden well outside off stump with plenty of protection square of the wicket. Samson swatted it between the bowler and mid-off, barely moving other than rising to the tips of his toes to get on top of the bounce and swivelling through his hips in sync with his bat’s tennis-forehand downswing.

Apparent stillness giving way to apparent effortlessness. This was trademark Samson, but only 90 percent of the way there.

The Full-Blown Version

His previous innings, against Zimbabwe, had featured the full-blown version of this shot. It was his first scoring shot, against a ball of similar length from Richard Ngarava, slanting away with the left-arm over angle. On that occasion, he hadn’t looked to get on top of the ball: instead, he had hit underneath the ball and launched it for six over long-off.

If the shot off Holder fell on the cut end of the flat-bat spectrum, this one fell on the drive end.

An Unusual Innings Shape

If the shot off Holder wasn’t full-blown Samson, neither was the innings that surrounded it, which circumstances had moulded into an unusual shape, a rare and exhilarating one for his fans. India were chasing 196, and losing wickets just often enough to keep Samson’s most Samsonesque instincts in check.

“Last game in Chennai against Zimbabwe, we were batting first, so it was all about setting a very high score, so that’s how I wanted to go big, right from ball one,” Samson said at the post-match presentation. “But this game was completely different. As soon as I wanted to go a bit higher, we were losing wickets, so I wanted to build a partnership and wanted to keep on focusing on my process.”

Samson’s Performance vs West Indies

This was Samson easing off the pedal at certain intervals, choosing not to play certain shots, choosing to go along the ground when he might have typically aimed skywards. And yet, he scored 24 off 13 in a powerplay where India lost two wickets. And yet, he scored 37 off 17 against spin when India’s other batters combined to score 21 off 19. And yet, he faced 50 balls and ended up with the best strike rate of any India batter to face at least five.

Not an Anchor Innings

It wasn’t an anchor-style innings where his partners took more risks and got out quicker. It was simply an innings of serene, unstoppable quality on a day that belonged to him. Things happened around him without disturbing his poise, and whenever India seemed to come under pressure, he found a way to ease it.

He did so with a wide range of shots, and the one thing that tied them together, particularly against pace, was that trademark Samson quality, recently lost and regained, of stillness. Even a loopy Romario Shepherd legcutter, aimed wide outside off in an effort to wrench him out of shape, had no effect on it: he simply stayed still a little bit longer and launched the ball sweetly over wide long-off.

The Trigger Movement Fix

During his horror series against New Zealand, Samson’s trigger movement against pace had come under a lot of scrutiny. Critics had been quick to dismiss his way of stepping leg-side and deep in his crease as fundamentally unsound, and it had certainly made him look ungainly, his weight moving away from the ball and his bat slicing across it, often with a closed face, putting him at risk of missing the ball or meeting it with the leading edge.

Here in Kolkata, Samson was adopting the same trigger movement against pace: back and leg-side, finishing with both feet inside the crease. He seemed to be triggering earlier, though, so when the ball left the bowler’s hand he seemed to be in a more stable, better-balanced position, ready to shift his weight forward or back as required.

The old sense of stillness, in short, was back.

Technical Adjustments Explained

India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak confirmed in the mixed-zone interaction after the match that Samson had indeed worked on the timing of his trigger movement. “I wouldn’t want to go into the detail, but yes, we did work on his initial movement a little,” Kotak said. “We were just trying to create a better base for him. He also felt he was getting ready a little early, and that helped him.”

Kotak clarified that this change had been in the works for a long time, and that he had had various discussions with Samson ever since his run of dismissals against the short ball during a T20I series against England last year.

The Confusion of Too Much Advice

He seemed to suggest that Samson’s poor form through most of 2025 may have affected his confidence, with numerous voices offering advice and confusing him. “A lot of doubt comes, a lot of people tell him a lot of different things, and when you are having a rough time, everybody wants to help you with good intentions, but whether it helps or not I’m not sure,” Kotak said. “To me it puts a lot of doubt in the batsman’s mind.“

In a Player-of-the-Match interview of honesty that’s rare from most cricketers but not from him, Samson spoke of these doubts himself, not just over this recent period but over a career that he has mostly spent on the fringes of India’s T20I line-ups, sometimes in, sometimes out, often on the bench.

“I’ve always had a very special journey with lots of ups and downs,” he said. “I’ve kept on doubting myself, kept on thinking, what if? Can I make it? But I kept on believing and thanks to the Almighty for actually blessing me today, so I’m very happy.”

The Pitch Gardener

Sanju Samson loves himself some pitch gardening. Between deliveries, during an over switch, and while waiting for a new batter to arrive. He’s not fidgeting with his glove strap, or re-taking his guard, or just drifting towards square leg to compose thoughts and fill dramatic pauses in an intense game. Samson is just looking down and flattening out scuffed up parts of the pitch.

A packed Eden Gardens with more than 58,000 people was bouncing with the ebbs and flows of a World Cup epic in the making on a Sunday night, while Samson was still tapping his bat down. If there were nerves or thoughts racing through his mind, it didn’t show.

Key Moments at Eden Gardens

Samson hit 12 fours all evening, but the one off Roston Chase at the start of the 14th over was loaded. The off-spinner fired one full and wide from round the stumps, and Samson stood still and squeezed it behind point. It made Daren Sammy pace nervously around the West Indies dugout, before rushing in at drinks break to talk his players into keeping their heads in the game.

The Emotional Release

The next big moment that captured Samson’s understated brilliance arrived at the start of the last over. With seven to get, Samson flicked a full ball from Romario Shepherd over the square leg fence for six and still didn’t catharise. The emotions spilled out of him only when the next ball flew over mid-on for a four.

Samson dropped to his knees, looked skywards with clasped hands and traced a cross in gratitude.

“It means the whole world to me. I think right from the day I started playing and started dreaming to play for the country, this is the day I was waiting for,” Samson said. “I’ve had a very special journey with lots of ups and downs, but I’ve kept on doubting myself, kept on thinking, what if, what if, can I make it? But I kept on believing and thanks to the Lord Almighty for actually blessing me today. I’m very happy. I think this is one of the greatest days of my life.”

The Road Back

Samson saw his World Cup dream start to vanish in front of his eyes during the bilateral series against New Zealand in January 2026. He’d endured a tough 2025 and that culminated in a series full of mishits at the start of the year. In a twist of fate with cruel undertones, Ishan Kishan rubber-stamped his spot in the side as the wicketkeeper and opener in Samson’s first T20I at his home ground in Thiruvananthapuram.

There was no space to wrestle with any internal turmoil as Samson played against Namibia in the World Cup in Abhishek Sharma’s absence through illness. But once he was ready, Samson returned to his relegated position on the bench.

In Ahmedabad before the South Africa fixture, he batted for more than an hour in the nets, but only because Suryakumar Yadav needed his bowlers to get some practice against right-handers. All of this did not mean he took his eye off the ball. He was ever-present in practice, and kept upgrading his technical game while he was at it.

The Selection Twist

Everything he’d worked on might have remained confined to the nets if not for Salman Agha’s clever Powerplay ploy forcing India’s hand. Pakistan set a template, and Netherlands and South Africa took cues. Off-spinners messed with the rhythms of India’s left-only top-three for three consecutive matches, and pushed India into a re-think.

Samson came in, to split the left-handers and blunt this match-up.

The Robotic Purpose

When play resumed after drinks, Shimron Hetmyer took a sharp catch at mid-off to dismiss Tilak Varma and stir Sammy’s interests again. West Indies huddled and perhaps told themselves that there was still a window to eke out a win. The crowd sensed it too. The noise dipped as Tilak trudged off, leaving a hollow echo behind.

But none of this seemed to reach Samson. By now he was almost robotic in his purpose: score runs and tend to the pitch. Rinse. Repeat.

Maybe Samson had grown used to this odd moment of solitude, as one batting partner walked off and another entered the scene. From the third over to the 19th, Samson watched five of them leave him behind and keep West Indies in the game, but he stayed the same.

Chases like these often turn on a surge of something extra, a burst of emotion, a cold stare or even a bit of gamesmanship to tip the scales. But Samson’s only currencies on the night were a bat swing and a bat tap.

Samson’s T20I Centuries

Samson has three T20I centuries, and three more in the IPL, but no other night could’ve left him feeling like this one. Consider the context of the fixture: a loss meant curtains on the title defence. Now add the circumstances in which he was back playing.

Not once through his 50-ball stay could you tell if Samson was enthused or worried by the constantly-shifting momentum. He stayed the course for long enough to push West Indies out, earning a deserved tip of the cap from his captain and a big, warm embrace from the rest of the batters who he had bailed out.

Read More: Why Pakistan Failed at T20 World Cup 2026: Selection, Tactics and Administration

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