Yuvraj Singh has revealed how a crucial conversation with Sanju Samson helped shape the wicketkeeper-batter’s turnaround, especially during a difficult phase in his career.Speaking on a podcast with Sports Tak, Yuvraj reflected on Samson’s struggles, pointing out that a string of failures forced the batter to rethink his approach.
“Coming to Sanju Samson, who failed in 8-10 innings, was going through failure. That’s where you need to say, I need to change something. Sanju had reached that stage where he felt he was not finding a place in the XI. He had scored two hundreds in South Africa, so I felt… the conversation I had with him happened in 2024 when India won that World Cup in Barbados. In that World Cup, Sanju was not playing. I had been watching his batting for 2-3 IPL seasons. I told him we would speak whenever he had time.”Yuvraj highlighted a key technical flaw that he believed was holding Samson back.“So my issue with Sanju was, you have to improve your footwork. If you don’t improve your footwork, you will consistently land in trouble. Scoring runs or not is different, but you have to improve your footwork. I gave him some ideas on how to improve it.”While the initial results did not change immediately, Yuvraj noticed a clear improvement as Samson spent more time at the crease in high-pressure matches.“After that he played, didn’t do well, but then got another opportunity. I felt in the quarter-final, semi-final and final, the more balls he faced, his footwork kept getting better. The more time he spent on the wicket, his footwork improved. So I felt obviously he must have done something in his practice.”Yuvraj also spoke about the nature of the game and how a single innings can shift momentum and confidence.“Cricket is such a game, one innings can take you up or down. The game keeps you balanced in life, that’s what I have learnt. I am very happy for Sanju. He has been playing for so many years and had such an amazing World Cup. He is a very good kid and I am very happy for his success.”Samson’s performances in the 2026 T20 World Cup backed up Yuvraj’s observations. Despite playing only five matches, he emerged as India’s top scorer and was named Player of the Tournament.In the final, Samson delivered a stunning knock of 89 off 45 balls, giving India a blazing start and setting the tone for the title win. His innings is now the highest individual score in a T20 World Cup final, surpassing Marlon Samuels’ unbeaten 85 in 2016 and Kane Williamson’ 85 in 2021.The 31-year-old also rewrote the record books with his six-hitting, smashing 24 sixes in the tournament — the most in a single edition, going past Finn Allen’s previous mark of 20.
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Consistency became Samson’s hallmark as he registered half-centuries, scoring 97* in a virtual quarter-final and 89 each in the semi-final and final, joining an elite list featuring Shahid Afridi and Virat Kohli, who have also scored fifties in both the semi-final and final.He also matched the record for most consecutive fifty-plus scores in a T20 World Cup, with three in a row, alongside names like Mahela Jayawardene, Kohli, Babar Azam, KL Rahul, Kusal Mendis and Sahibzada Farhan.In doing so, Samson also became the highest-scoring Indian in a single edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, surpassing Kohli’s long-standing tally of 319 runs from 2014.
