After Several Failures, Sanju Samson Helps India Win 2026 Cricket World Cup
Sanju Samson’s success at the 2026 Cricket World Cup was due to learning from the masters, persistence, and luck says Cherian Samuel
(Photo: Sanju Samson with the 2026 World Cup. Courtesy ICC.)
By Cherian Samuel
March 29, 2026
Earlier this month, Sanju Samson became a rare Keralite who was celebrated by Indian cricket fans. The wicket-keeper batsman enabled India to win the Cricket T20 World Cup, which was held in the country. Samson, 31-years-old, won the Player of the Tournament award.
In the knockout stage against the West Indies, Samson scored 97 of the Indian team’s 199 runs, with five wickets to spare. This beat the West Indies score of 195 runs in the 20 overs tournament. In the semi-finals, he scored 89 of India’s 253 runs, a narrow win over England’s 247 runs for seven wickets. In the finals, Samson scored 89 of India’s 255 runs while New Zealand were all out for 159 runs in 19 overs. India, which has won three T20 World Cups, was the first host nation to win the title.
“I was rewarded for being brave enough to dream,” Samson told the media after India’s World Cup win. “It feels like a dream! I have no words. I was part of the World Cup winning team in 2024 but didn’t play a single match, I’ve been visualising and working hard for this moment ever since.”
Samson is “a special talent,” Gautam Gambhir, India’s head coach and former Indian cricketer, told the media. He added that Samson was proof that you can succeed when you believe in yourself.
Given that cricket is by far the most popular sport in India, Samson’s World Cup performance makes him one of the great male sports stars in the country. And also in Kerala, though cricket is less popular in the state than soccer and volleyball.
Twenty cricket is the shortest form of the game with each team playing a single inning of maximum 20 overs, 120 legal balls, over three to four hours. The batsmen are selected for this contest based on their power hitting. They try to quickly hit fours and sixes to help their team build a huge total score in 20 overs. Amongst the leading Indian batsmen, Samson is a muscular power hitter. While 5 feet 7 inches tall, he weighs 75 kilograms, 165 pounds.
Up until this month’s World Cup, Samson had an erratic record in international competitions, despite a good, long record in domestic matches. In January 2026, prior to the World Cup, Samson performed poorly in India’s bilateral T20 series against New Zealand, which was held in India. “After the New Zealand series I was broken, my dreams were completely shattered... But God had different plans,” he told the media after the World Cup win.
Though selected for the Indian team, as in 2024, Samson did not get to play in the initial round of the 2026 World Cup matches. Then, he played during the Super 8 stage of the tournament due to fortunate circumstances. The coach and captain selected Samson to replace some of India’s leading batsmen who had performed poorly in the initial round. This time, he made the most of the opportunity.
Samson’s wife Charulatha Remesh traveled with him for the World Cup matches. During the early rounds, she helped him tackle his self-doubt about his talent and abilities since he was not asked to play. Remesh reportedly runs a human resources business in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Samson and Remesh, who met in 2013 at Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, married in 2018. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the college and a postgraduate degree in Human Resources from Loyola College of Social Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram. Samson earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Mar Ivanios College.
In 2024, Samson scored three centuries, more than 100 runs, two of them outside India, in the T20 matches against South Africa and Bangladesh. This led both Gautam Gambhir, who took over as India’s head coach that year, and team captain Suryakumar Yadav to believe that Samson could perform well in the World Cup.
Yet, while selected for the 2025 series against Australia, Samson did not get to play. He reached out to Sachin Tendulkar, one of India’s greatest batsmen. He asked Tendulkar what he needed to do to improve his game and mindset. “For the last couple of months, I have…had big, big conversations with him. Getting guidance from someone like him, what more can you ask for?” Samson told the media after the World Cup victory.
On the eve of the T20 World Cup Final this month, Tendulkar called Samson to check on how he was feeling and on how he viewed what needed to be done to win the game. “I received a message from Sachin sir and it was a very emotional moment for me,” Samson said.
In 2013, as an 18-year-old, Samson was selected by the Rajasthan Royals, a cricket team in the India Premier League (IPL). In 2021, he was named captain and, a year later, he led the Royals to the IPL final. S. Sreenath, a former Indian cricketer and fellow Keralite, invited Samson to try out for the Rajasthan Royals. Earlier, in 2012, Samson was selected by the Kolkata Knight Riders, another IPL team, though he did not play any matches that season.
The IPL, a professional T20 league, is the most popular and richest cricket tournament in the world. It comprises of ten teams based in major Indian cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. The league was started in 2007 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Samson’s father, Samson Viswanath, was key to him pursuing cricket. Since Samson was four years old, Viswanath encouraged him to watch videos to learn the techniques of leading Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.
In the 1990s, Viswanath, a constable in the Delhi Police, played as a striker for Delhi’s soccer team. He spent a large portion of his modest salary on cricket coaches, bats, pads, gloves, balls and travel to tournaments for Sanju and his brother Saly. He also arranged for his sons to practice with the Delhi Police cricket team so they can learn and sharpen their skills against older, stronger players.
Both brothers played for Kerala’s junior cricket team due to Viswanath’s foresight. In 2003, when Samson was eight, Viswanath took voluntary retirement and moved the family from Delhi back to Kerala. He wanted his sons to have a chance of being selected for Kerala’s junior cricket team. This would have been very tough in Delhi where the competition is far more intense. Viswanath had made a similar decision to leave Kerala, to take up a job with the Delhi Police, so he could play in the city’s soccer team. He knew it would be very difficult for him to find a similar stable job in Kerala, based on his soccer skills, since the state has several good soccer players.
Viswanath emphasized self-belief, asking Samson to project the body language of a leader on the field. He told his sons at an early age, “You are the son of a constable. The boys you play with are sons of politicians, IAS, IPS (senior bureaucrats) and businessmen. If you want to succeed, your bat must speak for you”.
Viswanath has been vocal in his support for Samson’s cricket career. He blames former Indian captains and coaches, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rahil Dravid, for Samson’s exclusion from the Indian team. “These four people wasted 10 years of my son’s life. But the more they hurt him, the stronger Sanju came out of the crisis,” Viswanath told Media One, a Malayalam news outlet.
(Sanju Samson and wife Charulatha Remesh holding the World Cup, 2026. Courtesy Sanju Samson social media.)
Samson was born in Kerala in a Christian family, to Samson and Lijy Viswanath, in Pulluvila, Vizhinjam, about 50 miles from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital city.
Samson’s cricket success was widely celebrated in Kerala, where he is revered as an Adipoli (a person of excellence). This month, when he arrived in the state, the day after the World Cup win, he was greeted by large crowds. On March 16, several thousand people attended a public reception for Samson, organized by the Kerala government, at the Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. He was dressed in the traditional mundu (garment worn around the waist) and jubba (long, full-sleeved tunic). “My biggest achievement is your praying for me. Thank you for that,” Samson said in Malayalam. He added he was grateful for the support of several people in the state, including Biju George, a former cricket coach.
In addition to visiting his parents, Samson went on a 404 kilometers, 250 miles, road trip across Kerala in his Range Rover. One of his stops at a local chai stop went viral on social media. He went to Kozhikode on a surprise visit to his friend Rohan Kunnummal, who took over from him as the state’s cricket team captain.
Samson also visited Nithin Babu, owner of Feya Garments, a retail apparel store in Ernakulam. Babu gave cash bonuses totaling Rupees 277,000 ($3,000) to his 82 employees, following Samson’s performance in the three final matches of the World Cup. Samson bowled an over for Babu and then joined his family in a meal of his favorite dish, kappa (tapioca) and meen (fish). The visit was organized by Airtel in connection with Babu’s participation in a “Super Fan” contest held by the cellphone service provider.
Faith is central to Samson. This month, after his match-winning innings against the West Indies, in the World Cup match in Kolkata, he knelt down on the ground and drew a cross. “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thanks to the Lord Almighty for actually blessing me today,” he said later, “I have kept on doubting myself, kept on thinking... can I make it?” Samson’s home town of Vizhinjam has a centuries-old Portuguese Church, Our Lady of Sea Voyage. When he is home on Sunday mornings he attends mass at the church.
Samson avoids exclusive media interviews. But in 2022, he was interviewed by Basil Joseph, a leading Keralite film actor and director and a cricket fan. “I am from Vizhinjam, from a middle-class family, trying to help others in my extended family and community,” Samson told Joseph. “I have been able to help some of them study in colleges and find jobs. From a young age I have enjoyed sharing what I have, including my cricket bat. I overdo it at times.”
In 2018, Samson founded the Six Guns Sports Academy in Thiruvananthapuram, dedicated to training young male and female cricket and soccer players in Kerala. He also invites cricket players from Kerala to IPL team trials.
In the current 2026 IPL season, which begins this week, Samson will play for the Chennai Super Kings, after being traded from the Rajasthan Royals. He will earn Rupees 18 crore, $1.9 million), one of biggest annual payments for a player in IPL history. Samson’s net worth is estimated to be more than Rupees 85 crores, $10 million, which includes fees from cricket teams and sponsorships with Puma, Gillette and other consumer brands. He lives in a luxury home in Thiruvananthapuram and his collection of cars includes Lexus, Mercedes and other vehicles.
Speaking to the crowd at the stadium in Thiruvananthapuram this month, Samson said, “We all have dreams. Our dreams should be big, the biggest dreams. I dreamed about being part of the Indian cricket team and also winning a World Cup. As we pursue our dreams there will be naysayers. There will be obstacles and opposition. We must move forward. We must respond not with words but through our actions.”
*Cherian Samuel, a writer based in Washington DC, retired from the World Bank. He earned a PhD in economics from the University of Maryland.