MUMBAI: Sanju Samson’s match-winning knock of 97 not out off just 50 balls against West Indies at Eden Gardens in Kolkata — which helped India pull off a five-wicket win in their last Super 8 clash on March 1 and enter the T20 World Cup semifinals — left one man swelling with pride.
Even as he cheered every four and six Samson smashed on Sunday night at his home in Dubai, Zubin Bharucha felt uneasy as missiles were being intercepted overhead amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
“It’s all a little strange. But hanging in there,” Bharucha told TOI from Dubai, before quickly switching to a long chat about Samson, one of his favourite wards.
A former Mumbai cricketer-turned-coach, Bharucha has known the 31-year-old keeper-batter since he was 17 and has played a major role in his journey to becoming an international and IPL veteran.
“It’s unreal that I’ve been coaching him for such a long time now! He was such a kid when he first came to me!” Bharucha exclaimed.
Samson’s ability to bounce back after losing his place in the XI due to poor form speaks volumes about his mental strength.
By now, Bharucha knows Samson’s game and personality inside out. The veteran coach pointed to a rare quality reflected in his batting — a “sense of purity.”
“Resilience has been his hallmark. But what is incredible about him is the person he is – which is what you see reflected in his batting.
There is a sense of purity to it. Almost spiritual in nature. He cares more about whether he has taken care of the people in his church than his own personal runs or achievements, that’s just who he is as a person and you can see that in the purity of his strokeplay. I know it’s a bit deep but that’s how I see it,” Bharucha explained.
Before the five-match T20I series against New Zealand last month, Bharucha was invited by Samson to Thiruvananthapuram for a four-day session.
Opening up about the focus during that stint, he said, “The focus was around not leaving any stone unturned in terms of what he might expect to be thrown his way.”
The initial results were not encouraging — Samson managed just 46 runs in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand at 9.20 and was eventually dropped from the XI just before the T20 World Cup. However, in the crucial match against West Indies, he rediscovered his touch.
Describing the flicked six off Romario Shepherd in the final over, Bharucha said, “What we plan for is the hands to be in front of the stumps to attack the stump line and outside off-stump balls. And then wait for them to attack the inside and then it becomes a free hit. This image is from the six he hit in the last over. As in, we want the bat to operate (swing as much as possible along the stump line) in front of the stump. For that to happen, you need to make a back and back movement. It’s a similar movement to what legends like Graeme Pollock used to make back in the day,” explained Bharucha.
Recalling Samson’s century against South Africa in Durban, he said, “He has played some extraordinary shots and innings inside the IPL. Also his hundred on a fairly bouncy and seaming pitch against SA when the next best score was thirty odd (Tilak Varma 33), which I thought was also an excellent innings. I think it was Jansen, (Gerald) Coetzee bowling quick and then (Keshav) Maharaj, (Aiden) Markaram etc. I remember Abhishek (Sharma) getting hit on the head by (Marco) Jansen. That was also a high-class innings.”
Bharucha termed Samson the “right-handed Brian Lara in terms of the high backswing.”
“The reality is when he scores runs it’s always going to be magical, because he has that little extra special gift of timing that very few have. It comes from his unending backlift which gives the impression of ease in stroke play, almost like a right-handed Lara in terms of the high backswing.”
Turning philosophical, he added, “It’s a threshold of learning that one crosses – and that can only happen in the middle. One can prepare as best possible and that’s what we did, looking at every possible aspect that could be thrown at him. Varying conditions, different pitches, different types of bowlers and sidearms. But eventually the best learning happens out in the middle when you actually put yourself into these positions from where you grow exponentially within a game.”
Refusing to get carried away, Bharucha concluded, “As I always tell the players, this is only the beginning, fingers crossed…”
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