
R Ashwin heaped praise on Sanju Samson and has labelled the young Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain as 'phenomenal' ahead of the Indian premier League (IPL) 2024 edition, which gets underway on March 22. Samson has been leading the RR franchise since IPL 2021 and led them to the final in IPL 2022. In IPL 2023, the Royals ended fifth and narrowly missed out on entering the playoffs. Ashwin, who has been part of the Royals since 2022, feels Samson is a phenomenal leader and also dwelled on his on and off-field bond with the keeper-batter.
Speaking to Star Sports, Ashwin told, "On the field, I try and give him inputs as I see how the game is panning out. However, that relationship off the field doesn’t come on the field. It’s generally that younger brother, elder brother sort of a relationship off it. On the field, we are able to switch off."
He further opined, "I do what he wants and give my inputs and then he takes what he wants and gets on with it. I find Sanju as a young captain, he is able to differentiate, and demarcate both which is phenomenal."
Ashwin added, "Sanju is extremely funny off the field. I am not sure a lot of people understand that or probably know that. It’s a problem of perfection a lot of people battle how you see someone on the ground and how they are off it, it’s completely different."
At present, Samson is gearing up for IPL 2024 whereas Ashwin is currently part of the Indian team who will take on England in the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala, starting on March 7. He will join the Samson-starrer RR franchise soon after the end of the India-England Test series.
RR squad for IPL 2024
Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Avesh Khan, Rovman Powell, Shubham Dubey, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Abid Mushtaq, Nandre Burger.