It is after 14 years that Rajasthan Royals have made it into the final of the IPL tournament. Even though they couldn’t win the championship, the Men in Pink undeniably won millions of hearts of all the cricket lovers across the world. We cannot help but agree that Rajasthan performed brilliantly throughout the season under the leadership of Sanju Samson. On one hand, Samson and English superstar Jos Buttler were the Royal's most explosive batters, while Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Prasidh Krishna, and Trent Boult made one of the best bowling squad of this IPL season.
Samson- the cool captain
After this season, Samson will be known as a man with substance, the captain cool with an ever-present smile who inspired Rajasthan Royals to reach the final. He became only the second captain, after Warne to lead RR into an IPL final.
Many times on the field we saw him put on the motivator’s garb, backing up players who were going through a rough patch. He did not seem to over-advise his bowlers and helped them set the field as they wanted, but often chipped his observations. He breathed assurance, a cloak of calm harnessing the confidence in his players. Going with his calculation and instinct, he has shown many experiments with both the batting and bowling order. Whether it was about using Ashwin as a pinch hitter to elongate the line-up or the ‘Retired out strategy’ that ended up being the next big innovation in T20 cricket, the Rajasthan captain never hesitated to take the chance.
A Master Batter of the season
In the words of Sangakkara, “He has become more and more aware of what his role is — that he is only captaining when is fielding and that when he is batting he is Sanju Samson the batter, who bats with freedom and enjoyment.”
It looks like being a captain helped Sanju Samson retain his consistency in displaying his smashing knockout moves. He has been more influential with the bat than ever before — 912 runs in 30 innings at a strike rate of 141.5, his consistency better than many other players. In Rajasthan Royals, by the design of form and natural inclination, it was Jos Buttler who was expected to score big runs, while Samson, being in their top six, was tasked with scoring as quickly as possible from his position. He has succeeded in maintaining an ideal balance between being aggressive and consistent scoring big. What makes him different is his fearless attitude and self-belief, especially when facing the fierce fast bowlers to world-class spinners. Sanju led his side well and went on scoring for 458 runs at an average close to 30 and a strike rate of 147. In the entire IPL league, he retained his place among the top 10 batters list for the past few years as a run-scorer at the slot with 3526 runs at a whopping strike rate of 135.72. So far, Samson has notched 279 fours and 158 sixes pummeling three hundred and 17 fifties.
Undoubtedly, Samson has changed his plays over the last few years. He answered his critics with his bat and has taken his game and his team to another level. He completely blended into his role as a captain proving himself as *one of the best ‘Young Captains’ India has ever seen.
