IPL 2021: Rajasthan risk big on Sanju Samson's firepower, questions remain on consistency

Rajasthan Royals have roped in another captain but this time thankfully ahead of the tournament rather than midway through it. However, the beneficiary of the transfer on the last instance—Steve Smith, is now a victim after the franchise had enough of seeing the team languishing at the bottom of the table despite having a power-packed team.

Unlike the last instance of firing and hiring among the leadership group in the Royals setup, which reflected a lack of coherent strategy, this round of handing over the baton to a 26-year-old young man from Kerala— exults confidence in the team. For that matter, it also speaks of the vision the management have as they are willing to invest in a talent who they believe has the potential to lead a team packed with domestic and international superstars.

Samson has been a regular for the Royals in the Indian Premier League. He has played with them for all his career apart from the two seasons when the franchise was serving a ban for spot-fixing. Hence the people responsible for the handling of the team feel that Samson has a proper understanding of the team culture along with the fact that he is one of their batsman who could be playing for a long time considering he is just 26 years old.

There’s merit in the point they saw behind releasing Smith as they were looking to build the core of batsmen who could do finishing job for them in the middle overs and the fee the franchise paid for the service of Smith was becoming unbearable, more so because the team was seen floundering in the last season after making a blistering start.

Samson was the chief architect of that blazing start the Royals had got in the last seasons before everything started to unravel for the side, and also he was the linchpin of the abysmal run of form the team had after early wins.

Throughout his career, Samson has been a sort of enigma who has not done enough, consistently to seal a spot for himself. He has earned reckoning in his career and has also made his way to the Indian team for the T20 format. In the recently concluded T20 series against Australia, he got a considerably longer rope for proving his worth but failed to go big and convert his starts into sizeable contributions. 

However, he was always under pressure whenever he came out to bat and hence he could not afford to waste balls in search of pacing innings, and hence Indian management kept backing him, but scores of 10 from 9 balls, 15 from 10 balls, and 23 from 15 balls don’t do justice to the potential that has been widely talked about.

He has been guilty of not making the good use of form and wasting seasons after having a great start. In the last season played in the UAE, he amassed 375 runs from 14 matches on the back of only three half-centuries, but the in-depth look of these numbers show he went off the boil as the tournament entered its business end. 

He had burst onto the scene when Rahul Dravid put trust on him in the IPL 2013 and he repaid the faith by tonking the likes of Mitchell Johnson and recently retired Lasith Malinga. He impressed with his ability to pick lengths so early that resembled experts of someone like Rohit Sharma as one of the finest Indian batsman Farokh Engineer had called him the find of that season after being impressed by his attitude while batting.

His numbers improved in the next edition where he crossed 300 run-mark in the IPL 2014 and the talks of him rising through ranks started brewing. The next two seasons wrecked his rise as runs dried up from his bat where he could just about manage to cross the 200-mark.

The breakthrough season came in the 2017 edition when the right-hander was playing for the Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils) where he got his mojo back and plundered 386 runs with a staggering strike rate in excess of 140. He never looked back since that season and has become a force to reckon in IPL.

The numbers are in Samson’s favour and no one can dispute that he deserved to be reckoned by the franchise to lead the side, especially when a far more accomplished captain with experience failed to pick up the intensity of the team last season. But, Samson has shown signs of breaking down in terms of his batting mindset and temperament and he is blamed very often for not seizing the opportunities he has been presented with.

The decision to let go Smith was a pragmatic one for the Royals and no wonder they were involved in an intense discussion because they were heading to a far more uncertain territory by handing out the command of the team to someone who himself has not looked assured on his own abilities in the past. This time he will have the wise mind of Kumar Sangakkara who has a fair idea of managing resources howsoever little at his disposal and the duo will have to bring the best of their vision ad shrewdness to revive the Royals in the IPL 2021.

If this punt on Samson works well for the Royals, it could well be the rejuvenating factor the franchise which has not tasted success after the inaugural edition of the league and having an India captain always play a big role in finding the perfect balance of overseas stars and Indian utility players.

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