Sanju Samson scored 115 not out off 56 balls against Delhi Capitals (DC) to help Chennai Super Kings (CSK) open their account in IPL 2026 but he had “a lot of doubts” after failing in the first three games.

Samson came into the IPL having scored 97 not out, 89 and 89 in his last three outings to lead India to the T20 World Cup title, but started the season with scores of 6, 7 and 9.

“To be very honest, how much form you’re in, however many matches you have won for your country, a couple of failures definitely put a lot of doubts in your mind,” Samson said at the post-match presentation after being named the Player of the Match. “But I just wanted to go back and do my basics and believe in myself and just stick to my scoring patterns.

“So a lot of thoughts came. Should I go harder at the start or should I change my game plan? But I wanted to stick to what was working and luckily, it came off beautifully today.”

When asked what he changed to get back among the runs, Samson said he just returned to the basics.

“I have failed a lot, and that tells you how you need to come back,” he said. “Mentally you think about, okay, do you need to go a bit hard, or do you need to change your game plan? So the mind gets a bit here and there. So you need to bring your mind and body to the basics. I am 31 years old, and I have spent a lot of time in this sport, so I need to know what my basics are.

“My basics are to mentally get in a different zone, and also physically do your basics. As a batsman, you need to come back to timing the ball, just looking at the ball coming out of the bowler’s hand, so all those things. We did some really good sessions a day before with our supporting staff, and I am very happy things came nicely today.”

This is Samson’s first season with CSK after the franchise traded him in from Rajasthan Royals for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran. Samson said he felt a “responsibility” to repay that faith.

“The trust they showed in me, having that trade, I think I felt I needed to put in a show, I needed to stand up and say, ‘okay, we are still in the tournament’, and luckily, everything came off very nicely,” he said. “It’s not easy to start off the tournament like this in a different franchise, but it never felt like it was a different franchise. I think it’s like coming to another home. I think people are so sweet, so nice and everyone is so calm.

“Even after losing three games in a row, we just had a meeting of 50 seconds today. That shows how the franchise is and that really connects with the person I am. So very happy to be here.”

Samson celebrated his hundred by saluting the dugout. He said he wanted to dedicate his innings to head coach Stephen Fleming, who has also come in for criticism.

“That was for Fleming,” Samson said. “I know how hard it can get. I was leading a franchise for the last five years, I know how mentally challenging it can be, so I just wanted to dedicate this to our coach Fleming.”