A young and exciting talent who played his first IPL match on 14th April 2013 from Rajasthan Royals franchise to leading the same team as a captain, Sanju Samson came long way in his cricketing career. It always feels good to see someone coming from middle class background, yet he manages to hearts of Indian fans. Lately, there has been some talks about his role of leadership, therefore let’s dive into the detailed analysis of Sanju Samson as captain and player.
Sanju Samson’s Performance As Captain In IPL
If we talk about Sanju Samson captaincy, there are different opinions out there but today we are going to see his records and achievements as a captain so that we can get a clear picture.
The breakthrough season for Sanju came out in 2021 season of IPL, When he got the opportunity to lead Rajasthan Royals team with his young and fresh approach. The very next moment after the announcement of role of captain for Sanju, many people said that, Sanju will not going to handle the leadership pressure along with his batting.
Despite having a top class T20 batter Jos Buttler, Rajasthan choose to stick with Samson for their long term solution regarding the position of captaincy.
If we look at Sanju Samson’s 2021 season captaincy records, Out of 14 league stage matches he was only got the taste of win 5 times. Therefore, all the critics started raising questions against his leadership role.
Moving forward to IPL 2022 which silenced everyone who said, he may not be successful as a captain. Rajasthan not only qualified but also made into the finals against Gujarat Titans.
The leadership skills of Sanju impressed everyone when Royals won 9 matches out 14 league stage games in 2022 and gained the trust of franchise owners.
Thereafter, His winning percentage as captain did not declined in 2023 year too, He was exceptionally well in terms of rotation bowlers and sticking to team plan. Especially Sanju’s new use of Yuzvendra Chahal as a death bowler for the team
I think that’s enough to conclude that Sanju has done his captaincy job really well in these 3 years, and I am really confident in upcoming years Sanju will improve a lot more than he is now as a captain.
Does Sanju Samson Deserves Place In Indian Team?
If you are a regular cricket fan of Indian team and someone who watch most of the matches specially T20 and ODI, then you definitely would have heard someone talking about Sanju Samson place in playing 11.
That’s because, he has performing from 3-4 years in IPL with pretty good strike rate but still did not got enough matches to showcase his potential.
What if I tell you, Sanju made his t20 debut in 2015 and played just 17 matches till now in 2023, whereas players like Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan who came much later after Sanju are now regular part of the Indian dressing room.
In my opinion, a player needs certain amount of backing from management and captain in order to bring potential of the player in front of the world, but unfortunately Sanju did not got that support.
Infact, Samson can be very effective in white ball cricket as he brings the effortless ability of hitting against spinners and smashing big sixes on short pitch deliveries. He can play vital role for India to win t20 or ODI world cup.
So the answer is definitely yes, Sanju Samson really deserves to play for India as he has given enough considerable performance whenever he got the opportunity.
Will Sanju Samson Play ODI World Cup ?
Yet another hot topic for India to decide its playing 11 for upcoming ODI world cup, especially the position of number 4 and 5 can create headache for selectors and team management.
Right now there are couple players who possibly can be in world cup squad of India including Sanju Samson, for that he has to play couple of ODI matches before the tournament, but guess what Sanju has dropped in 1st ODI vs West Indies in ongoing series.
If we take an eye of Samson’s odi career, he played 11 games in which made 330 runs including 2 half-centuries with the average of 66 runs. I think that is enough sample size to judge a player’s ability.
Surya Kumar Yadav’s last 10 inning has been absolutely below average where he roughly scored around 100 runs in 10 matches in ODI, on the other side Sanju is sitting on the bench with pretty good performance 50 over format.
It clearly seems that there is lack of support by both captain and management to try Sanju Samson in place of Ishan Kishan or Surya Kumar Yadav.
I personally don’t think that Samson can make into world cup squad for India as he is not getting sufficient opportunity that too in the absence of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, then just imagine how hard it will become for Sanju in future.
Moreover, He is someone who can rescue the team in crucial situations like he did many time for Rajasthan Royals. Still I don’t get why he is not getting enough chances, In fact he can really play some big innings in one day international cricket as it perfectly suits his playstyle.
Conclusion
The man who is finding place from last couple of years in Indian dressing room, despite giving some good performances in white ball cricket is really unfortunate to see. The only thing Sanju can do is putting some masterclass on the scorecard so that he can not only play this year’s odi world cup but also can be a regular player for Indian cricket team.
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