‘Wow, that’s a hell of a cricketer’ – Jimmy Neesham’s reaction on watching Sanju Samson bat in Rajasthan Royals’ training session
Sanju Samson seems to be leaving people in awe on and off the field, as his Rajasthan Royals (RR) teammate Jimmy Neesham said he was mesmerised by the Indian batter’s strokeplay during a recent training session for IPL 2022.
New Zealand allrounder Neesham said he was talking to his RR teammate and fellow countryman Daryl Mitchell about Samson’s widely acknowledged talent and batting pedigree, and they couldn’t help but shower praise for “a hell of a cricketer”.
Speaking to Cricblog, Neesham was effusive in complimenting the ever-classy Sanju Samson. The Kiwi player said he has seen the India and Kerala right-hander bat before also and had been impressed, but the level of quality he brings to his net session is something else.
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Sanju Samson has been phenomenal for RR over the last few editions of the IPL.
Jimmy Neesham left in awe over Sanju Samson
“One of the best things about the IPL is being able to live day-to-day with these guys that are so high-quality and watch how they train. Sanju Samson is definitely one of those players,” Neesham said in the interview.
“The thing that strikes me about Sanju Samson is that you can sort of see the quality of batsman when you play against them in games, and you get a feel for how they strike the ball. But, you don’t really understand until you can watch them train day after day and hitting balls. You really get a sense of how high-quality they are,”
“Sanju played a couple of shots at training a couple of days ago and I looked across at Daryl Mitchell [New Zealand teammate] and we just sort of looked at each other and went ‘wow’, that’s a hell of a cricketer,” he added.
Dispelling doubts and criticism around his consistency, Sanju Samson has been a player transformed over the last few editions of the IPL.
Playing the difficult middle-order role in a Royals side for whom success has been elusive for most parts, Samson has compiled 944 runs from 30 innings since the start of IPL 2020.
RR’s stand-out performer has averaged an impressive 34.96 in this timeframe while maintaining a strike-rate of 147.96 in an aggressor’s duties.
Despite exceptional IPL performances, however, consistent opportunities in India’s T20I side have been missing with Samson, who will be eyeing another solid season with Royals to try and cement his place ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia.