Rajasthan Royals started their IPL 2023 campaign on a promising note before losing steam in the second half that saw the last year’s runners-up failing to qualify for the playoffs this time around. With seven wins and as many defeats, the inaugural champions finished 5th on the table, a disappointing result.
RR captain Sanju Samson finished as RR’s third highest run-getter of the season with 362 runs including three half-centuries in 14 innings.
Samson has been a decent IPL performer and despite that, he hasn’t been able to cement a spot in the national team and former India cricketer S Sreesanth says the wicketkeeper-batter needs to perform in first-class cricket as well in order to stake a claim.
He also added that the likes of Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan continue to be ahead of him.
“I support Sanju because he played under my captaincy in U-14. In the past 4-5 years, when I see him as a cricketer, I’ve always told him to perform in first-class cricket, not just IPL,” Sreesanth told Star Sports.
“Produce consistent performances. Ishan Kishan, and Rishabh Pant — both were and still are ahead of him. Pant is not there, but he will make a comeback. I met him recently, he firmly believes he can come back within 6-to-8 months,” he added.
Sreesanth then claimed that batting legend Sunil Gavaskar had advised Samson to take his time before playing out big shots but he ignored the advise.
“But in this IPL, the way Sanju got out in 2-3 matches straight … Gavaskar sir told him, ‘give yourself at least 10 balls. Read the wicket. We know you have a lot of talent, even if you have 0 runs in 12 balls, you can score 50 in 25’. When RR lost in one of their last matches in the league phase, Sanju said, ‘no, my style is to play like this only’. I couldn’t digest that,” Sreesanth said.
Comments
0 comment