Last year, Sanju Samson did a great job as captain of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. He led the Jaipur-based team to its first IPL final since the first season of the money-making league. Under his leadership, the Royals lost to the Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 final and came in second place. The team has kept most of its core players from last year this year. They want to go one step further and win their second IPL trophy after 15 years.
Before the start of this year’s cash-rich league, former Indian pacer S. Sreesanth, who also played for RR in the IPL when he was a player, looked at the team’s roster for the 2023 season and made a surprising statement by saying that skipper Sanju’s leadership could be one of the franchise’s weaknesses.
In a video of him analyzing the Royals’ team, Sreesanth can be heard saying, “I hope Sanju Samson does very well and gets back into the Indian lineup by scoring a lot of runs and doing a lot of good things.”
But he warned Sanju’s attacking captaincy could be a weakness for the Royals in the IPL 2023. He said that the cricketer from Kerala needs to find a balance between attacking and defending, and he also needs to find a balance in his thoughts.
“See, Sanju is a captain who likes to attack, so he has to be careful. When the time is right, he might have to step back. I’ve also been telling him that. That could be one weakness. He might have to find a good balance between attacking and defending. Even when it comes to being a captain, he still has a lot to learn. But that will be a significant point for both strengths and weaknesses. Sanju has to find a balance between what he thinks and what he does,” he added.
Sanju was named captain of the Royals before the 2021 IPL. He has led the team in 31 games, 15 of which they have won and 16 of which they have lost.
