Sanju Samson's rising stock

Sanju Samson was named the captain of Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2021.

It wasn't a big surprise that Rajasthan did not go for Steve Smith and released him ahead of the IPL 2021 auctions. But that they would be brave enough to hand the captaincy to a young and sometimes mercurial Sanju Samson came as a breath of fresh air.

Best performance

In 2022, Rajasthan won 9 league matches but lost to Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1. The team went on to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore and qualified to the final courtesy of a fine effort from Jos Buttler. Unfortunately for them, they could not get the better of Gujarat Titans once again and were pipped to the post in the final.

Samson's captaincy was lauded by several former cricketers and analysts and was instrumental in taking Rajasthan to the playoffs

Overall, Samson has captained in 31 IPL matches out of which he has a decent record having won 15 matches. Sanju has lost 14 games and has a win percentage of 48.39.

As captain, he has scored 942 runs with four half centuries and one century. His best has been 119 off just 63 deliveries against Punjab Kings in 2021.

Lacking consistency

There is little doubt that Sanju Samson is a gem and has more shots than almost any other Indian batter. However, he hasn't been able to deliver consistently and break the glass ceiling of the 500 run mark, which he has never been able to achieve in all his years at the IPL.

Sanju made his IPL debut in 2013 and went on to play all 11 matches for his franchise. His best season in terms of numbers has been in 2021 when he scored 484 runs from 14 games at an average of over 40 and a strike rate of 136.72 with the help of one century and two half centuries.

Assisting Buttler

In IPL 2022 as well, he did a fine job. The season which was dominated by Jos Buttler, who finished with the orange cap, saw captain Samson score 458 runs from 17 matches at an average of 28.63 and a strike rate of 146.79, with the best of 55.

Samson has also been in and out of the Indian team. He recently got the backing of former head coach Ravi Shastri who said that he is more suited to playing in Australia than any other India batter. It will be interesting to see if Samson can cement his spot in the Indian T20 team going forward.