Sanju Samson created unique record in ICC T20 World Cup: Sanju Samson became Player of the Tournament in T20 World Cup after playing only 5 matches.

New Delhi: ICC T20 World Cup 2026 will be remembered for wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Samson for Team India. Sanju played only five matches in the tournament for Team India and became the Player of the Series. Especially in the last three matches, Sanju has created a ruckus. With this, a unique record was also registered in the name of Sanju Samson in ICC T20 World Cup history. Samson has become the first player to win the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award despite being out of four matches for his team in any ICC men’s or women’s tournament.

Before Samson, there were only four players who had won the Best Player of the Tournament award despite not playing all the matches of their team. These are the players who missed only one match for their team, but the case with Samson is different. Samson was out for Team India in four matches. Let us tell you that at the start of the tournament, Samson was struggling to score runs and hence he was not selected in the playing eleven in the initial matches. He got a chance to play one match due to Abhishek Sharma being unwell in the middle, but after that he was dropped.

Sanju finally scored a half century in three matches

After the big defeat to South Africa in the Super-8, India, considering the abundance of left-handed batsmen in its top order, gave a chance to right-handed batsman Samson and the Kerala player did not look back after this. Samson scored unbeaten 97 runs in the match which was like a quarter-final against West Indies. After this, he played an important role in India’s victory by scoring 89 runs in the semi-final against England and then 89 runs in the final against New Zealand. For this he was chosen the best player of the tournament. India played a total of nine matches in this tournament, out of which Samson was able to play only five matches. A player who has previously been named ‘Player of the Tournament’ in an ICC men’s or women’s tournament had either played all of his team’s matches or was out of only one match.

Players who have won the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award despite not playing a single match in any ICC tournament include Australia’s Lisa Keightley (Women’s ODI World Cup 2000, played eight out of nine matches), Australia’s Karen Rolton (Women’s ODI World Cup 2005, played seven out of eight matches), England’s Kevin Pietersen (Men’s T20 World Cup 2010, played six out of seven matches) and New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra. (Champions Trophy 2025, four out of five matches played).