Sanju Samson scripted history on Sunday, breaking former captain Virat Kohli’s long-standing record for most runs for India in a single edition of the men’s T20 World Cup. The right-hander scored an excellent 46-ball 89 against New Zealand in the final of the 2026 edition at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, taking his tournament tally to a whopping 321, two more than Kohli’s 319 from the 2014 season.
Two things stand out in Samson’s record. Firstly, he took only five innings to get there. The right-hander was not part of India’s first 11 when the tournament started. He only played one match in the group stage, when Abhishek Sharma was out with illness, scoring 22 against Namibia.
He was brought back when Abhishek lost form, as India demoted Ishan Kishan to accommodate him. The Kerala star reposed the faith with knocks of 24 against Zimbabwe, 97* against the West Indies in the virtual quarter-final, and 89 against England in the semi-final. This 89 against the Kiwis was equally impressive, though he again missed what would have been a once-in-an-era century.
Secondly, Samson scored this huge number of runs at a strike-rate of 199.37. That’s the best strike-rate for any batter who has scored at least 250 runs in a men’s T20 World Cup edition.