Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 10 (ANI): Following his side's ICC T20 World Cup win, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir termed Sanju Samson's knock of 97* against West Indies as the 'turning point of the campaign' and pointed out how his confidence was going ahead in the tournament.

Samson scripted a comeback for ages during the recently-concluded T20 World Cup as he battled inconsistency and benching to emerge as India's leading run-getter in the tournament, delivering clutch performances when it mattered the most, with a string of half-centuries from the virtual quarterfinal against West Indies to the title clash against New Zealand.

When the entire cricketing world had their eyes on world number one batter Abhishek Sharma, a recently-returned Ishan Kishan and skipper Suryakumar Yadav as India's potential top run-getter and 'X-Factors', Sanju's domineering presence and authoritative strokeplay were out of the syllabus for his opponents.

Before these three knockout punches delivered to West Indies, England and New Zealand, Samson was not having best of times. After a horrid series against New Zealand, scoring just 46 runs in five matches, he lost his place as a primary wicketkeeper-batter to Ishan. When he was given chances initially during the tournament, he did play high impact knocks of 22 and 24 against Namibia (in group stage) and Zimbabwe (super eights) respectively, but could not convert his starts into something massive. However, Sanju saved his best for the last to have one of the finest T20WC campaigns ever by a player in terms of pure stats and the circumstances during which his runs came. Just when his team was fighting for survival following a 76-run loss to South Africa, Samson single-handedly infused a new life into the team.

Speaking on JioStar's 'Follow the Blues', Gambhir said, 'It is very difficult to say, but I still believe that Sanju's 97 against West Indies was the turning point of this campaign because again, it was a virtual quarter-final and someone making a comeback who did not play four or five matches before the Zimbabwe game. Chasing 195 in a virtual quarter-final, irrespective of whatever the ground is, in a World Cup game, is never easy. With the ease and the calmness that he batted, I think it gave us a lot of confidence in the group that now, probably, we are on the right track. Before that, there was a lot of talk that we play very aggressively in the bilaterals but not in the ICC tournaments. After the West Indies game, when Sanju got going and how Ishan Kishan batted at three, I thought that a lot of things actually started taking shape.'

From 97* against West Indies in the virtual quarterfinal for the final semifinal spot, to 89 against England and another 89 against New Zealand in semifinals and finals, Sanju left everyone mesmerised with his clean hitting and silenced every bit of trolling, criticism about his poor run and inconsistency, at least for a very long while to come.

Samson made 321 runs in five innings at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37, with 27 fours and 24 sixes, and ended as the third-highest run-getter in the tournament. He also surpassed Virat Kohli's total of 319 runs in the 2014 T20WC edition to have the most runs by an Indian during a single T20WC edition.

However, Pakistan batter Sahibzada Farhan overtook Virat's record earlier, ending the tournament as the leading run-getter with 383 runs at an average of 76.60 and a strike rate of 160.25, with two centuries and two fifties.

Samson went past legendary Virat Kohli to become the Indian batter with the most runs in a single T20 World Cup and also joined Virat and Shahid Afridi in an elite list of batters with fifties in T20 World Cup semifinal and final both.

His knock overtook West Indies batter Marlon Samuels' 85* against England in the 2016 T20WC final and New Zealand star Kane Williamson's 85 against Australia in the 2021 edition final. He owns the highest score by an Indian in a T20 World Cup knockout game. He also joined Virat and Shahid Afridi, the Pakistani all-rounder, as the third player to post fifties in the T20WC semifinal and final.

Virat had scored fifties in the 2014 T20 World Cup semifinal: 72* against South Africa and 77* against Sri Lanka in the final. On the other hand, Afridi made 51 against South Africa and later 54* against Sri Lanka at Lord's in the final. Sanju has also joined Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene, Babar Azam, Virat, KL Rahul, Kusal Mendis, and Sahibzada as the batter with three successive 50-plus scores in T20WCs, the joint-most by a batter.

The 24 sixes struck by him are the most by a batter in a single T20 World Cup. (ANI)