The Indian head coach, Gautam Gambhir, has been massively praised for the knock of their opening batter and wicket-keeper, Sanju Samson, who smashed a fine knock of unbeaten 97 runs during their chase of 196 runs in the Super 8 fixture of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 against West Indies at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Sanju Samson, who had a decent knock against Zimbabwe at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, continued the same approach and blasted the fine knock. When he reached his fifties, he took a new stance and restarted his knock.

See Also: Watch: 'Played to...'- Saurav Ganguly reacts to Sanju Samson's 97 in IND vs WI T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8

“Look, I actually thought that he never accelerated the innings. It was just a very, very normal cricketing shot, and I never saw any muscling the ball as well, and that is the kind of talent he has. When you know that you're in control of the game and you know that you're feeling good, he's hitting the ball really well in the nets, and it's about going in the middle and showcasing that skill that you had.” Gambhir said in the post-match press conference.

Sanju Samson receives praising words from Gautam Gambhir 

India have made their way to the semifinal and for the consecutive time will come against England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on March 05. Samson hopes to carry the same form as Gambhir addressed.  

Watch the video here: 

"He delivered it for us." 🇮🇳

When @GautamGambhir & 1.4 billion Indians 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐃, and Chetta repaid it with a performance that carried the #MenInBlue to the World Cup Semi-finals! 💙🙌

ICC Men’s #T20WorldCup Semi-Final 2 👉 #INDvENG | THU, 5 MAR, 5:30 PM pic.twitter.com/AyzqcmQMqF

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) March 2, 2026

“Yes people will keep a look at the score but then coming back into the team and then playing that kind of an innings of 23, 24, I thought that must have given him a lot of confidence because obviously the guy had a tough series against New Zealand, but we always knew the kind of potential he had, and most importantly, I thought the way he was batting in the nets was absolutely brilliant,” Gambhir informed.

“Three T20 hundreds is not many people have it. Sometimes, it’s important to give him a break because you want to get the guy out of the pressure situation. But we always knew that whenever we would need him, he would come and deliver it for us in the World Cup game.” India’s head coach revealed.