Sanju Samson scored 32-ball 60 for Rajasthan Royals© BCCI/Sportzpics
Up against defending champions Gujarat Titans, the Rajasthan Royals produced a scintillating show of run-chase, with skipper Sanju Samson leading the charge with his bat. Chasing a target of 178 runs, Samson scored a brilliant 32-ball 60 while Shimron Hetmyer took the team home with an unbeaten 56 off 26. As the Royals went top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 standings, chatter around Samson’s international status flooded social media. Even renowned cricket pundit Harsha Bhogle put a firm message for the national selectors on Twitter.
Samson remains one of the most talented batters in white-ball cricket. Though he has been in and out of the Indian team, many believe that a consistent run for the wicket-keeper batter in the T20I team would see him emerge as one of the biggest performers in Indian cricket.
Seeing Samson lead the charge for the Royals against the Titans, Bhogle tweeted: “I would play Sanju Samson in the Indian T20 team every day.”
I would play Sanju Samson in the Indian T20 team every day.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 16, 2023
Samson hasn’t just impressed with the bat in this IPL but also with his leadership. Having taken Rajasthan all the way to the final last year, the Kerala-born cricketer is showing similar confidence in his unit this time.
“When you play quality opponents on a quality wicket, you get such games. Very happy to compete in such a game and come out on top. It was important to rotate our bowlers, they were playing some quality cricket and we had to respect that. The whole team came up well today and we could restrict them to around 170. The start we had, it shows how good a wicket this was. The new ball the quality of swing bowling was good and we had to respect that.
“But today Zampa coming was a way to match up with the opponents. He was the match-up for Miller and almost got the wicket, but the catch was dropped. (On Hetmyer) He doesn’t like easy situations, we like putting him in such situations because he usually wins us games from such situations,” Samson said after the match.
Having taken the No. 1 spot in the points table, Rajasthan would look to build on in the remaining league matches of the campaign.
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