Rajasthan Royals' captain Sanju Samson in action. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)After playing purely as a batsman and impact player in the first three games of the season, Sanju Samson will return as Rajasthan Royals captain for the match against Punjab Kings at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh PCA International Stadium at Mullanpur on Saturday. Samson, who suffered a finger injury and underwent surgery, was cleared by the National Cricket Academy to play as wicket-keeper in the IPL.
“To be very honest, I was a bit surprised. I was like ‘Ho jayega teen match bahar baithna hai’ (I was thinking it will pass quickly as it’s only a matter of three games). But missing three games, I was just holding myself back and seeing the game from a different perspective. So, it was a bit of a different learning experience… to sit in the dug-out and see my brothers fighting it out there. So to be honest, I am pretty excited to be back and to be fully fit to keep wickets and to bat,” Samson said on Friday.
When Samson was an impact sub, Riyan Parag captained the Royals in their first three matches. While the team lost its first two matches — 44-run loss and eight-wicket loss — against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively, they won the last match against Chennai Super Kings by six runs at Guwahati.
When asked about the team missing the likes of Jos Butler, bought by Gujarat Titans at the auction, Samson appreciated the impact the Englishman had on a game but said the time had come for the team to move on. “Jos has been one of the best batsmen in the IPL. We all know that we have to move on with this IPL rule of three-year cycle of auctions. Definitely we had one of the best players playing for us for the last cycle. And now also, we have got a very good batting line up. If you see our last three games, we conceded 280 odd runs but we also ended up scoring close to 250 runs. So we have a good batting line up. Also in the game against Chennai, our batters did well. So I think we are well balanced,” Samson said.
Three roles
This season has also seen Samson playing as an opener instead of batting at No.3. Samson has also been recently promoted as opener for India in the T20 format. Last year, Samson had scored 531 runs in 16 matches with a strike rate of 153.47 in the IPL. The three roles — opener, wicketkeeper and captain — are challenging, Samson said. “Its something very new to me. I think captaining a side as well as opening and keeping wickets. It’s definitely a challenging task. So I am very much looking forward to it. I think every IPL season brings something new to my career. So I have accepted it and I am learning from it. So it’s very exciting and I am looking forward to how I can contribute in all these three departments,” Samson said.
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