The sole reason opener Sanju Samson was brought into the playing XI was to break the monotony of six left-handers. He was not the first-choice opener, not in great touch, and bogged down by the burden of low-key scores in the run-up to the T20 World Cup.The home series against New Zealand almost shut the door for him. His fans and supporters felt he had been unlucky to have run into a bad patch just before the start of the tournament. Samson is one batter who has three centuries in the T20Is. Very few batters have this achievement in this format, yet he has flattered to deceive time and again. His critics say Samson has been given enough chances but failed to cement his place. It is his own doing. His supporters say he has never got a longer run which other more fortunate batters have got. Every time he gets his chance, it comes with an added responsibility of taking up a new batting position, mostly down the order during the crunch phase of the game.But on Sunday, the Kerala batter was ready for everything, come what may. When his turn came, he smashed a 50-ball 97 not out to help the team master a chase of 196 against West Indies in the must-win Super Eights game. Twelve fours and four sixes in a chanceless innings where the Windies removed India’s top-order but could not move Samson to alter his game.After the match, Samson was flush with emotions and let out a peak in his struggle of years. Talking to the official broadcaster, Samson said he switched off his phone and social media accounts to make sure that he did not lose self-belief during a lean patch.“Shot selection was something I kept working on. I did not want to change too much because I knew I had performed with the same setup, so I kept believing in myself, switched off my phone, switched off social media and listened to my own self,” Samson said after India’s five-wicket win.The 31-year-old batter thanked God that this knock came at a time when the team needed it, which makes it more significant in the context of his prospects ahead in his career.“I am very happy it happened in a very special game. More than a hundred cricketers in India dream about a day like this. I dared to dream. A young guy from Trivandrum, Kerala, dreaming about playing for the country and winning a game in such a crucial match. I dared to dream and it happened.”Samson stood firm, with small contributions from skipper Suryakumar Yadav (18) and Tilak Varma (27) getting them over the line.“It was a bit of a difficult chase. Looking at our batting power, I felt that chasing 190-odd at Eden Gardens, when dew comes in, gets a bit easier, but losing wickets at regular intervals made it challenging,” the wicketkeeper-batter said looking back.“That’s where my experience and my role played a big part. I got a good start, but when the wickets kept falling, I felt I needed to finish the game and take it till the last moment. Normally you feel like doing it, but it doesn’t happen all the time, so I am very grateful it happened in this game… when you are chasing a score like this in a pressure game, you take different options and play more boundaries rather than looking at risk-taking options,” he said.Speaking on his bad patch recently, including the home series against New Zealand, Samson revealed his thought process.“Our human nature is that we often start from a negative thought like, ‘Can I do it? I don’t think I can.’ When I have that thought, I try to alter it with a very positive one. When I had a series like New Zealand where I wanted to perform and be part of the World Cup team, things did not work out well, but luckily I got a 10-day gap,” he said.