India created history on Sunday (March 8) by registering a crushing 96-run win over New Zealand in the 2026 T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad. It was India's third T20 World Cup title, making them the team with most titles in this format. England and West Indies are the only other teams to win multiple trophies.
India also became the first home team to win a T20 World Cup and also rewrote history by becoming the first side to register back-to-back T20 World Cup trophies. Amidst the plethora of records, one man played a critical part in India's turnaround - Sanju Samson! The 31-year-old featured in just five games but ended up bagging the Player of the Tournament.
Samson played a massive role in all of India's knockout games. A sublime 97* in the virtual quarterfinal against West Indies was followed by two scores of 89, one in the semifinal against England and then the final against New Zealand. Samson ended with a whopping tally of 321, setting a record for the most runs by an Indian in a T20 World Cup edition.
By winning the POTT award from just five games, Samson has also equalled Kohli's record for the fewest games needed to win this award. Kohli in the 2016 edition also won the award despite featuring in just five games but that format had much lesser games anyway. Hence, Samson's effort should go down as a greater achievement.
Player of the Tournament winners list and matches played in the tournament
- Shahid Afridi (2007) - 7
- Tillakaratne Dilshan (2009) - 7
- Kevin Pietersen (2010) - 6
- Shane Watson (2012) - 7
- Virat Kohli (2014) - 6
- Virat Kohli (2016) - 5
- David Warner (2021) - 7
- Sam Curran (2022) - 6
- Jasprit Bumrah (2024) - 8
- Sanju Samson (2026) - 5