Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir slammed Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson for his inconsistent performance with the bat in IPL 2021 and said that either he scores an 80-90 or nothing at all.
Sanju Samson started his IPL 14 campaign with a bang. The 26-year-old notched up a century in Rajasthan Royal’s first match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and almost won the match for his team single-handedly but fell short of 5 runs.
However, after his heroics in the first match, the RR skipper failed to carry his form as he registered scores of 4, 1, and 21 respectively in the next three matches he played.
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While talking about Sanju Samson’s inconsistent form, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir said that consistency had been an issue with RR skipper as he starts well, and then it’s either nothing or everything.
“If you look over the last many IPLs, consistency is an issue. He starts very well but it’s either nothing or everything. So your graph shouldn’t fluctuate this much,” Gautam Gambhir told ESPNCricinfo.
Gautam Gambhir cited the examples of Virat Kohli AB de Villiers and Rohit Sharma to explain that great players' returns don't frizzle away after one good knock. He added that too much fluctuation in Samson's returns route from a 'mindset' problem.
"A good player’s graph always remains in the middle. If you look at Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, or AB de Villiers, who are all brilliant players, if they make 80-odd runs they don’t score 0, 1, or 10 in the next few innings but contribute with a knock of 30 or 40-odd runs.
“But if you look at Sanju Samson’s graph, either he scores an 80-90 or nothing at all. If there is so much fluctuation then somewhere it’s an issue of the mindset,”
In the absence of key players like Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, there is more responsibility on Sanju Samson’s shoulders but lack of consistency from RR skipper is also impacting his team’s performance as they have lost three out of their four games and are currently placed at the bottom of the points table.
(ESPNCricinfo inputs)
