IPL 2021: "Even Sanju Samson didn't remember how many changes they made" - Aakash Chopra slams RR skipper and team management
Aakash Chopra was scathing in his criticism of Rajasthan Royals (RR) after their forgettable outing against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday. He called out Sanju Samson for his 'inscrutable' captaincy and the RR team management for making a glut of changes in every match that even the skipper couldn't remember.
KKR trounced RR by a record-shattering margin of 86 runs. Shubman Gill was top-class in the first innings and scored a 44-ball 56 to propel KKR's target to 171-4. In reply, the RR batsmen were a bit too aggressive from the get go and couldn't get past 16 overs and 85 runs to concede their biggest defeat in IPL history.
Aakash Chopra, in a video on his YouTube channel, pinpointed some of Sanju Samson's bowling changes to explain where it all went wrong for the 2008 IPL champions. The former Indian opener said:
"RR's track record has been hit. They must have made 25-30 changes [in the season]. There were 3-4 changes in this game as well that even Sanju Samson didn't remember how many changes they had made. Then first, the captaincy decisions were inscrutable - which bowlers were you putting to bowl or why were you doing that... He bowled two overs of spin from Glenn Phillips and Rahul Tewatia, which got one wicket but conceded 28 runs. Shivam Dube was bowling well but he was stopped. Jaydev Unadkat was doing well but he was stopped and then brought back again to finish his quota within the first 10 overs. So much was happening."
Aakash Chopra also took a swipe at Sanju Samson's failed DRS calls throughout IPL 2021. He even renamed DRS as "Don't Review Sanju".
Aakash Chopra said:
"He even took a review and I felt the new meaning for DRS should be 'Don't Review Sanju' because he has not got one review right this season. He's a 'keeper-captain, right? He's got a pretty decent place to judge. But that's been the story."
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The massive defeat ended RR's campaign in IPL 2021. While two matches remain in the league stage of the season, the franchise is almost certain to conclude the season in seventh position in the points table.
"Fear the KKR" - Aakash Chopra
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Aakash Chopra also talked about KKR, who are now all set to become the fourth team to qualify for the playoffs. He said the team were 'timid' in their previous match but turned it around completely against the RR and coined the mantra "Fear the KKR" for the business end of IPL 2021.
Aakash Chopra asserted:
"Against SRH, their performance was timid. The match shouldn't have gone to the 20th over but Kolkata suddenly became very cautious and I felt something was going wrong. So it was important to see their attitude in this game. And what attitude they showed! Lockie Ferguson is back and 'Lock-key' has the key to success. He's absolutely sensational. He performed really well but before that the batsmen played brilliantly too... Morgan got some runs under his belt as well (chuckles). So everything is going well, just keep it up, keep it up, fear the KKR is what I am saying."
KKR's qualification will be confirmed after Mumbai Indians' match against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) starts at 7:30 PM in Abu Dhabi.