Prior to the 2024 IPL season, experienced Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that Sanju Samson possesses extraordinary skills as a skipper. Ahead of the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season, star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently highlighted his friendship with Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson.
Ashwin described Samson as a humorous person off the pitch and claimed that their shared love of South Indian cinema is what makes them friends. Since 2022, Ashwin has represented RR while playing under Samson’s captaincy. For the forthcoming IPL season, the pair was retained.
Sanju Samson is extremely funny off the field- Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin emphasized that Samson is entirely different on and off the field, continuing by saying that he is really hilarious off the field. In 152 IPL games, Samson has amassed 3,888 runs with three centuries and twenty fifties. Last season, he hit for 362 runs at a strike rate of 153.39.
Recently, Ashwin said to Star Sports:
“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,”
He continued:
“That’s how Sanju is, he speaks Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil and we connect a lot. I am a Tamil cinema buff and we connect there and he gets humor,”
We are mostly having a conversation away from cricket- Ravichandran Ashwin
Ashwin goes on to mention that Sanju watches a lot of movies, which he understands. There, we quickly become friends and have a lot of laughs and fun regarding to it.
The Tamil Nadu-born spinning all-rounder added:
“A lot of people who speak Tamil and are not natively from Chennai or somewhere inside the state, don’t get the internal humor because a lot of humor comes from the movies,”
“Sanju because he watches so much cinema, he gets it. We straightaway bond there. We share a lot of laugh and riot. For me, when I see Sanju off the field, we are mostly having a conversation away from cricket,”
Ravichandran Ashwin praises Sanju’s captaincy, saying, “He is phenomenal”
Ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League season, renowned spinner Ravichandran Ashwin praised Sanju Samson’s captaincy style as exceptional.
RR will play its first IPL 2024 match on March 24 at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur against the Lucknow Super Giants. Prior to the 2021 Indian Premier League, Samson was named captain of the Rajasthan Royals, a position he has held for the previous three seasons.
“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,” expressed Ashwin.
In a conversation with Star Sports, Ashwin stated that he attempts to offer advise to Samson while on the field and praised the brilliant captaincy style of the batter from Kerala. In the IPL 2023 league stage, RR came in fifth and just missed out on playoff positions.
“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 stated.
In 45 games as captain, Samson has guided RR to 22 wins. In the 2022 season, he led his club to the finals. After winning seven of their fourteen league games, the Royals placed fifth in the standings the previous season.