Gorgeous batsman and a gritty calm leader: Dreamy IPL season accelerates evolution of Sanju Samson

Before this IPL, Sanju Samson was all about gorgeous bat-swings, a signature chuckle, and a gobsmacking talent. After this season, he will be known as a man with substance, a captain who always remained calm, had an ever-present smile and inspired Rajasthan Royals to reach the final. In character, he couldn’t be more different than the first Royal, Shane Warne, who had done it before, but there is a similarity. Warne needed that triumph to prove to Australians that he was the best captain Australia never had. Samson needed this season to prove to Indians that he is more than just a pretty batsman.
When Samson sat down and meditated deeper on captaincy at his seaside house in Vizhinjam, after he was installed as Rajasthan Royals captain last year, he reminisced about his early days with the franchise. The memories, the faces, the heartbreaks, the triumphs, like through a kaleidoscope, flowed and flickered through his mind’s screen. Somewhere in that deluge of emotions, he found his captaincy philosophy. “We didn’t win any titles, but we enjoyed playing together, enjoyed each other’s success and there was warmth. I wanted to bring the same atmosphere into my team,” he tells Basil Joseph, the brightest young director in the Malayalam film industry, in the Sanju and Basil Show.
Some of the speeches of former captain Rahul Dravid rang between his ears. “His speeches were profound. He often spoke of the higher purpose of life. His words had a hypnotic power to hold our attention for a long time. But as much as his speeches, he was so caring and understanding. He loved us, and thus inspired us to produce our best. That’s the atmosphere we are trying to create in Rajasthan,” Samson says.
At the same time, he does not blindly imitate Dravid’s ideals, or anyone else’s. MS Dhoni is the other big influence in his life — he used to cut his photos from newspapers and stick them on his geometry box. For a long time, his mind used to go blank in the adulation of Dhoni when playing against him. “I am different from Dravid or Dhoni, or anyone else. So, I try to be as natural as I am. Primarily, I try to assess the mood of the team. Often, they are all pumped up and so needn’t tell them that you should try your best. It’s sometimes the stupidest thing you would tell, because everyone wants to perform to the best of their skills,” he explains. Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium

The outlines of Samson’s captaincy ideas are getting well defined, the rhyme and rhythms more tuneful and steadily, the structures and syntax in place, he is setting a Sanju template of leadership, based on the ideals of collectivism, free-spiritedness and hard work. Rajasthan are not the most star-laden side, or the most thrilling side, or the most watchable, but they make things happen, they bend games and scripts with their will, scrapping the self-implosive ways they were prone to in the last two seasons.
There are times when he puts on the motivator’s garb. He, though, admits: “After the speech is over, I wonder if I really said all this stuff. I don’t consider myself to be very articulate.” Or at times, he plays the joker. “Just to lighten the mood, especially before a big game when we are all a bit nervous,” he says. There are times when he is stern too. “Not rough but stern,” he specifies.
There are times when Samson has to back players going through a rough patch. Sometimes even during a single innings, like Rahul Tewatia in the staggering smash-and-grab job against Punjab Kings last year. “He was missing ball after ball, but I just kept telling him that it was just a matter of connecting one ball, even though I was beginning to get tense. But I thought, if the captain does not support a player, who would?”

Proving doubters wrong
Thus, eliminating the scepticism that drummed when Samson was appointed captain — questions ranging from whether leadership would burden him or whether he would crumble, or whether he was indeed capable — he has, more than blending into the new role, notched up a gear or two. As if captaincy was the magic trick he was waiting for to make his life and career more meaningful. He has been more influential with the bat than ever before — 912 runs in 30 innings at a strike rate of 141.5, his consency better than both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, his hitting rate a leap ahead of Sharma, Kohli, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. He has cracked the elusive balance between being aggressive as well as consent. He jokes: “It’s simple, you look to hit seven off the 10 balls for a six. Not everything works out every time, but that’s how it works out in this format,” he tells Basil.
A happy player makes for a happy captain and a happy captain makes for a happy team. To stretch the line, a happy, talented team is often a winning team. Samson is among the runs, and seems happy, Rajasthan seem happy and they are winning games. Though Jos Buttler has been their superman of the season, match-winning contributions have come from a variety of avenues. Samson himself, besides Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shimron Hetmyer have racked runs; Yuzvendra Chahal has been their standout bowler, but Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna and Ravichandran Ashwin have all stamped their quality at various junctures of their sweat-soaked dream run.

At all times, Samson seems like a captain in control — neither too laid-back nor hyper-aggressive. He does not seem to over-advise his bowlers, sets them the fields they want, but often chips in with an observation or insight. He does not produce moments of tactical ingenuity, or inspire with high-wattage energy, but breathes assurance, a cloak of calm that harnesses the best in his players. He is not over-reactive, not an over-thinker either. “They should not feel that I am a schoolteacher,” he once said in a radio interview. But neither is Samson someone his men take for granted.
He, thus, has found groundswell of support from coach Kumar Sangakkara and senior players like “Jos bhai”, Ashwin and Chahal. “He is a very soft-spoken, very reserved individual. He has shown a lot of passion and hunger to take on this testing role of captaincy. Wicket-keeping, captaining and being the best batter in your side along with Jos Buttler is not an easy kind of role to fill but he has done it really well this season,” Sangakkara added.
Buttler admires his authenticity, Chahal – with whom he has roomed in Australia and who never fails to recollect a Sanju omelette faux pas – his composure and Ashwin, who Samson calls “annan (elder brother)” his attitude.
Even Mumbai Indians’ Ishan Kishan can’t but praise: “Woh ek dum mast hain na (he is totally cool)!” he says in the Breakfast with Champions show.

Happy in his own skin
Samson has never been this composed. A setback would be enough to set him down an alley of negativity. When he was young and growing up in Delhi, he got hurt when people used to make fun of his kitbag when waiting for the bus. “People used to ridicule us from behind calling, ‘Oye, Sachin aur uske papa mummy ja rahe hai, bhai yeh banega Tendulkar (Sachin and his parents are going. He will become Tendulkar)’,” he tells Gaurav Kapoor in an episode of Breakfast with Champions. He was draught and had thought of quitting the game when he failed to get a break in Kerala. The Kolkata Knight Riders stint went awry. Later, accusations that he freezes in big games — for state, club and country —flustered him. There were occasional run-ins with the Kerala board, an odd outburst or two as well. On the field, he would appear detached and frazzled, as if destiny was conspiring against him.

But the air of responsibility has changed his persona. He smiles more often; talks more often; jokes more often. There is genuine joie de vivre. He jokes he is better in front of the camera too. He appears in a Gillette ad, in Kerala peers from the ad hoardings of a steel company that promises the sturdiness and style of Sanju’s batting. He tells Basil that he is tempted to make short clips in the Ravindra Jadeja-David Warner mould. And jokes that someday he would act in a Basil move.
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The lockdown unburdened the pressure of expectations he had thrust on himself. “In the end, I realised it’s not about making myself happy, but the audience. We were going through a dark phase during the pandemic, and I thought if I could make a difference to their lives,” he says.
Thus, in a wider sense, the last two seasons have been his own second coming-of-age story, and the most enjoyable phase of his career.