CHENNAI: You are an Indian wicket-keeper middle-order batter in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL). You are among the few in the national team reckoning, trying to kick open the doors. The first-choice wicketkeeper-batter across all formats is out of action, the second one gets injured during the season. If there ever was a chance to be grabbed, piling up match-winning performances on a consistent basis to move up the ladder, this was it.
While it is hard to say whether Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson thought or not, he surely hasn’t made the most of it. As RR faced a massive 112-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur on Sunday, the possibility of them making it to the top four will now depend on the results of other teams. Two weeks ago, they had five wins in seven games and were in the top half of the table. Since then, they have won only one match in six games, and are placed sixth.
“That is a good question, I don’t know,” said Samson with a wry smile on Sunday when he was asked where it all went wrong for the team. “I was thinking about it while I was sitting in the dugout, and seeing our batting collapse and I was like where did we go wrong? I do not have an answer to that to be very honest. I’m just thinking through it,” he added. In fact, it has been the story of the second half of the season for RR. So much that Samson himself, despite being candid and pragmatic in his post-match chats, has repeated the phrase ‘that is a good question, I don’t know’.
On a personal level, Samson has so far scored 360 runs in 13 games at 32.72 while striking at 154.5. From an overall perspective, it is not bad. He has played some exhilarating innings as he always does. The only Indian wicket-keeper with more runs is Ishan Kishan (366) and his strike rate is 143.52. While it is still an above-average season as a batter, the numbers Samson has produced are neither tournament-winning nor is it the kind of show that makes you look up and take notice as he does with some of his shots at times. What’s more, he has gotten out for less than 20 runs at least five times this season, which has had a direct impact on the results.
Samson, and RR, are understandably one of the few teams that have persisted with an ultra-aggressive approach no matter the condition or consequence of the match. The intent is in the right place, but it has not been translated into results as Samson has admitted on several occasions. Even after the loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad where they made 214/2, he said, “...with the target we posted we can only be happy after we win the game,” indicating that they probably should have scored more. Jos Buttler has had a season to forget and with the kind of quality bowling attack they have, some of the on-field decisions, too, have been debatable as well.
The 2022 finalists could still get into the playoffs. They still have a positive Net Run Rate, and have a match to win on May 20. As Samson said, funnier things have happened in the IPL before. That being said, this was supposed to be the season where Samson held the limelight and took centre stage as a batter and captain. Unfortunately, he hasn’t.