{"id":478041,"date":"2026-03-16T04:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T04:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478041\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T04:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T04:13:13","slug":"ek-century-ho-jaye-toh-mazaa-ajayega-samson-admits-coming-close-to-breaking-gambhirs-trophy-over-milestone-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478041\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ek century ho jaye toh mazaa ajayega\u2019: Samson admits coming close to breaking Gambhir\u2019s \u2018trophy over milestone\u2019 rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest drivers of India\u2019s ruthless white-ball dominance under Gautam Gambhir<\/a> has been a clear shift in mindset, with the head coach instilling a strict \u201ctrophy over milestone\u201d policy inside the dressing room. For Gambhir, there is little room to celebrate personal landmarks, winning matches and lifting trophies matter far more than missed centuries.<\/p>\n

\"SanjuSanju Samson (C) celebrates with his coach Gautam Gambhir (L) after their team’s win in the 2026 T20 World Cup final match against New Zealand in Ahmedabad (AFP)<\/p>\n

The policy, however, did not emerge only after India\u2019s historic T20 World Cup<\/a> triumph last Sunday in Ahmedabad. Speaking at the India Today Conclave, Sanju Samson<\/a> revealed that the rule had been made clear to every player much earlier, when Gambhir took charge of the Indian team during the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka in July 2024. Since then, players have largely adhered to the team-first philosophy.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: After long travel ordeal in India, West Indies players are finally back home, informs Caribbean cricket governing body<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet Samson admitted that he came close to breaking that mindset during India\u2019s victorious T20 World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n

The India opener, who went on to win the Player of the Tournament award for his outstanding batting performances, revealed that the thought of a personal hundred did cross his mind, before he quickly checked himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were constant conversation points that we wrote down in team meetings since the Sri Lanka series (in 2024) when Gambhir and Suryakumar took over,\u201d Samson said. \u201cFrom that moment, it was clear there was no place for personal milestones. That is how our character got aligned.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there is a conscious effort. But when people say that I missed out on three hundreds, I feel I made a much bigger contribution. I won\u2019t say I never thought about those hundreds. As a human being, I also thought that \u2018Ek hundred ho jaye toh mazaa aa jayega. (It would be fun to score one century)\u2019 You definitely think about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then I told myself, \u2018How did you score so many runs?\u2019 So I respected the process and kept playing my shots. The only thought was what the team needed from me at that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samson fell agonisingly short of a century on multiple occasions during the tournament, finishing unbeaten on 97 against the West Indies cricket team in Kolkata, before being dismissed for 89 in both the semifinal against England and the final against New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The Kerala batter, who was not part of the playing XI in four of India\u2019s first five matches, eventually ended the tournament with 321 runs, including three half-centuries, to cap off a remarkable campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest drivers of India\u2019s ruthless white-ball dominance under Gautam Gambhir has been a clear shift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,18855,12935,8055,170094,6975,101,8051,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-gautam-gambhir","tag-indian-cricket-team","tag-samson","tag-samson-gambhir","tag-sanju-samson","tag-sports","tag-t20-world-cup","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}