Kerala batsman and Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson's inconsistent run with the bat after a big hundred in IPL 2021 has irked Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Gavaskar. “Sanju Samson starts like a million-dollar baby, who looks like he’s going to take the IPL on fire by scoring 800-900 runs but then suddenly he starts going down rapidly,” Gambhir told ESPNcricinfo.“He needs to contribute. I’ve spoken earlier as well that the graph can’t be so up and down. There needs to be some balance maintained. You’ve scored a hundred, but you still have to keep contributing. Look at AB de Villiers, look at Virat Kohli. They’ll get a hundred and then they’ll get a 40. “If you see Sanju Samson. There is a hundred and then nothing. He’ll probably get another hundred but that is not how quality or world-class players do. I’m not saying he’s gonna get a 100 every second game but you need contributions. He needs to be tighter. I want to see that responsibility taken by him,” Gambhir added.
Gambhir said the RR captaincy can either mature Samson or take his career the other way.“In the absence of Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes, it’s a golden opportunity for him to get mature. He’s at that stage of his career where it could go either way. He’s not a permanent member of the Indian side. He has been given the responsibility to lead RR so it either matures him or he goes the other way,” Gambhir said. Earlier, Sunil Gavaskar also expressed disappointment with Sanju Samson as the Rajasthan Royals captain, once again, failed to get a good score in Match 16 of the IPL 2021 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. "First and foremost, the captain has to stand up and deliver. He did it in the first game but that has been the problem with him. That is one of the reasons why he has not been featuring in the Indian team is that he scores runs in one game and then he looks to do it and carry on as if he’s batting in the next game from the same game, and that's how he keeps getting out," Gavaskar said on Star Sports. Gavaskar added that Samson scoring is imperative to RR's chances of getting a good total, believing that the captain is a key member of their top order, especially now that Ben Stokes has been ruled out due to a broken finger. Because the Royals have no designated finisher, Gavaskar feels Samson getting runs becomes all the more crucial. Samson, who began the season with a superlative century against Punjab Kings, scoring 119 in a losing cause, followed it with low scores of 4, 1 and 21. The Royals are currently languishing at the bottom of the table with 3 losses and 1 win in four games. They next face the out of form Kolkata Knight Riders on April 24 at the Wankhede.
