Kolkata: On his knees, arms slightly spread, palms upturned, the image of Sanju Samson looking up will linger long after the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup ends. Like his shots on Sunday, Samson then chose his words carefully. Grateful and thankful figured in his first reaction to the match-winning effort of 97 not out.
In an international career with more stops than starts, it fit that Samson, 31, would be on the fringes when the competition began. Had India’s left-hander heavy batting order fired, Samson would have been remembered more for being the archetypal Malayali in a Premier League promotional being aired during the World Cup. The journey from the dug-out to the den, from relative anonymity to adulation, began with 15-ball 24 against Zimbabwe but it was at Eden Gardens that a star was born.
One who has now joined an elite, if somewhat eclectic, group of athletes who have forged their reputation in the heat and dust of a World Cup from the bench or as a substitute. The reverse is hard as Aaron Ramsdale, then Arsenal No.1, had said at Doha’s Al Wakrah Sports Complex before the 2022 World Cup preparing for another campaign as England’s No.2. But this is harder.
Jemimah Rodrigues would know. Left out of the 2022 World Cup and then dropped from the England game in the 2025 iteration meant “things just kept getting worse, and worse,” she said after her stupendous, unbeaten 127 took India past Australia in the semi-final.
Mohammed Shami was in the same boat too. Benched during the first four matches of the 2023 World Cup, Shami made his first appearance against New Zealand in Dharamshala, taking 5/54. He followed that up with another match-winning haul of 4/22 against England in Lucknow. The pacer needed pain-killing injections to keep running in, but he finished with 24 wickets at an average of just 10.70.
Probably the best story of substitute to superstar is Amarildo’s. He was 24 and a forward with enough promise to merit a berth in Brazil’s 1962 World Cup squad. He was not expected to play because, well, Pele was. But left knackered by Santos and Brazil looking to cash-in on his other-worldly skills, Pele suffered a groin injury against Czechoslovakia. Up stepped Amarildo and scored against Spain in the next match.
It was the start of something special. Pele didn’t recover but with Amarildo scoring the equaliser in the final with a fantastic shot from near the goalline that went in at the far post and then setting up the second, Brazil were world champions again. “In losing Pele, Brazil had found Amarildo, and their elderly distinguished team had kept the World Cup,” wrote Brian Glanville in “The Story of the World Cup.”
Neither Salvatore Schillaci nor Sergio Goycochea could go all the way but the fact that they are being mentioned nearly 36 years after Italia 90 is proof of how they made that World Cup their own. Neither was first-choice and would not have got an extended run but for injuries.
Schillaci, a late bloomer in Serie A, played only 16 times for Italy but, as AC Milan pointed out after his death, “made an entire nation dream” for sometime in 1990. He scored six goals in that campaign including in the semi-final defeat to Argentina and won the Golden Boot (given to the highest scorer) and the Golden Ball (award for the best player).
He had got on the starting list because Gianluca Vialli was injured. Vialli recovered but by then, Schillaci had found his scoring boots and wasn’t going to take them off. “The train only leaves the station once,” he had said (The Power And The Glory: A New History of the World Cup by Jonathan Wilson).
If Schilacci could not play the final, it was because of Goycochea. Argentina’s No.2 was thrust into the spotlight after Nery Pumpido broke his leg against USSR and was ruled out. Goycochea was excellent against Brazil in the round of 16 and saved four penalties in the quarter-final and semi-final. Argentina’s postal department acknowledged his efforts by giving the goalie his own post code: 0004.
The 1990 World Cup also saw Thomas N’Kono being asked to start only hours before Cameroon’s opening match, against world champions Argentina, because the No. 1 Joseph Antoine-Bell had in an interview criticised the preparation and said a heavy defeat was expected. N’Kono kept Diego Maradona’s men at bay and Cameroon won 1-0.
Samson, Rodrigues, Amarildo, Schilacci, Goycochea and N’Kono may not have been first-choice but were part of their World Cup squads. “This is a team sport, and this will always remain a team sport,” said India coach Gautam Gambhir after the five-wicket win here.
But think of Shafali Verma and Lendl Simmons. Varma was leading Haryana in the national women’s T20 competition when India said they needed her. Pratika Rawal was injured and out and Verma had to step in for the in-form player. In a World Cup semi-final. She didn’t fire against Australia but her typically swashbuckling innings of 87 helped India become world champions beating South Africa. Simmons flew in as a late injury replacement and sent India home from the 2016 T20 World Cup with a belligerent 51-ball 82.
