Sanju Samson rediscovered his golden touch in the final Super 8 fixture against West Indies with a fine 97-run knock that powered India into the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2026. After a string of poor scores despite repeated opportunities, the Kerala keeper-batter delivered a life-time of an innings, when the Men in Blue needed it at the most. While Samson will retain his spot in the playing XI in the semi-final against England, he will surely face trouble in the form of Jofra Archer and the other England bowlers.
Sanju Samson’s biggest setback Jofra Archer?
As per stats, Archer has conceded 25 runs from 23 deliveries thus far to Samson in T20Is (all of them in 2025), and has managed to dismiss him thrice. Out of these 13 are dot balls while the Indian opener has managed to strike just 1 four and two sixes. Given that England are bound to open their bowling with Archer in he powerplay and that Sanju is bound to bat at the top of the order, it is going to be quite a difficult task for the Indian opener to navigate the overs of the England pacer. An average of just 8.3 against Archer in T20Is simply doesn’t help.
Against veteran Sam Curran, Samson has scored just 21 runs from 16 deliveries across 4 years – all of them while the two have locked horns in the Indian Premier League (IPL). On these occasions, he has been dismissed twice by the England all-rounder. A strike rate of 131.2 and an average of 10.5 suggests that Samson struggles in dealing with Curran as well, when it comes to the shortest format of the game.
Against other prominent England bowlers such as Adil Rashid, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Luke Wood and Josh Tongue, Samson has hardly played against them and hence continues to be a stranger. After registering scores of 22 and 24 before his unbeaten 97-run knock against West Indies. India will be hoping that he goes all guns blazing once again in Mumbai against England in the T20 World Cup 2026 semi-final.
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