Following India's ICC T20 World Cup win, head coach Gautam Gambhir identified Sanju Samson's unbeaten 97 against the West Indies as the campaign's turning point, highlighting the confidence the player gained moving forward.

Samson overcame inconsistency and being benched to become India's leading run-scorer during the tournament, delivering crucial half-centuries from the virtual quarterfinal against West Indies through to the final against New Zealand.

While attention focused on Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and captain Suryakumar Yadav as India's key batsmen, Samson's commanding presence and strokeplay proved unexpected for opponents. Prior to his impactful innings against West Indies, England, and New Zealand, Samson had struggled, scoring just 46 runs in five matches against New Zealand and losing his spot as the primary wicketkeeper-batsman to Kishan.

Early in the tournament, Samson made useful contributions of 22 and 24 against Namibia and Zimbabwe, respectively, but was unable to convert starts into large scores. However, he produced one of the finest statistical T20 World Cup campaigns ever, especially given the challenging circumstances under which his runs came.

India was battling for survival after a 76-run defeat to South Africa when Samson's innings revived the team's prospects. 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.”

Samson followed his 97* with scores of 89 against England and 89 against New Zealand in the semifinals and final, silencing critics and demonstrating consistent high-level performance.

He accumulated 321 runs in five innings at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37, including 27 fours and 24 sixes, finishing as the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament. Samson surpassed Virat Kohli's 319 runs in the 2014 tournament to set a new record for the most runs by an Indian in a single T20 World Cup edition.

However, Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan set the tournament record with 383 runs, including two centuries and two half-centuries, scoring at an average of 76.60 and a strike rate of 160.25.

Samson also joined Kohli and Shahid Afridi as the only players to score fifties in both the T20 World Cup semifinal and final. His 97* eclipsed Marlon Samuels' 85* in the 2016 final and Kane Williamson's 85 in the 2021 final, becoming the highest score by an Indian in a T20 World Cup knockout match.

He joined Kohli and Afridi as the third player to post fifties in both the semifinal and final of the T20 World Cup. Kohli scored 72* in the 2014 semifinal against South Africa and 77* in the final against Sri Lanka, while Afridi made 51 against South Africa and 54* against Sri Lanka in the 2010 final.