Speaking at the post-match presentation after the final, Samson revealed that he had contacted Sachin after India’s tour of Australia in which he was left out of the side after appearing just twice. ‘I was sitting outside in Australia, I was not playing a game, so I thought, OK, what is the mindset required of now? So I reached out to sir, and I had huge, huge, big conversations with him,” Samson shared.
“Getting guidance from someone like him, what more can I ask for? I think that clarity, that game preparation, that game awareness, that game sense, I think I’m very grateful for everyone who supported me.”
Samson, who finished as the tournament’s third-highest run-scorer with 321 runs, revealed that his mind had gone back to the 2024 T20 World Cup final where he was a member of the squad but did not play.
“I think this started 1-2 years before, when I was with the 2024 World Cup-winning team in West Indies. I couldn’t play a game but I kept on visualising, I kept on dreaming, I kept on working. This is exactly what I wanted to do then.
“I thought I needed to put in so much of work, and this is exactly what I wanted to achieve. And by God’s grace, I think today, things have turned around.”
Samson also admitted how that he had been struggling during the five-match series New Zealand that had preceded the tournament, where his poor run of form had resulted in him being left out of the side.
“Right after the New Zealand series, I was broken, I was completely out of my mind,” said the 31-year-old. “I was like, OK, my dreams have shattered, what else can I do? But God had different plans. I suddenly came back into the crucial games, and I did what I could for my country. So I’m very proud and very happy that I was courageous enough to dream about it, and actually, things have turned up so nicely for me, so I’m very grateful.”
Published on Mar 08, 2026
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