Sanju Samson: Kerala's teenage batting sensation

Sanju Samson

Only a few outside Kerala knew him when he was contracted by Rajasthan Royals for the sixth edition of the IPL. But the kid found instant fame, just a couple of matches into the tournament, and went on to become the ‘Rising Star’ of the tournament. He followed it up with some crucial knocks in the Champions League and has started the ongoing domestic season with a bang. Even though the journey has just begun for the eighteen year-old wicket-keeper batsman, Sanju Samson, it has been a fascinating one.

It is true that it was the IPL that has catapulted this gem into the public consciousness, but the youngster was making his presence felt in the domestic circuit over the years. After having made tremors in different age categories he became the youngest to represent Kerala in first-class cricket in 2011 at the age of 17. But his debut season was anything but ordinary, scoring 4 runs from 2 matches at an average of 1.33. But the 2012/2013 season was when he got into his groove. He scored 377 runs from 5 matches including 2 centuries at an average of 41.88 and followed it up with a decent showing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy before landing a contract with the Jaipur outfit. And since his impressive debut in the lucrative IPL there has been no looking back and he has grown from strength to strength.

The standout features of his journey thus far are his maturity, that beats his age, and temperament, which is rock-solid. The 60 off 33 balls he made in the Champions League final, when his team was in pursuit of a huge total against a Mumbai Indians side, which had a robust bowling lineup, was nothing short of brilliant. Unnerved by the pressure of the occasion, which apparently was his first major final and the last T20 game for Indian stalwarts Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, he went about his task along with Ajinkya Rahane. Yes, he unfortunately, ended up on the losing side eventually, but not before registering his mark on the biggest stage yet in his career.

Sanju was hailed for his temperament by the juggernauts of cricket including Sunil Gavaskar and Wasim Akram after this knock. He deserved every bit of the adulation that came from those legends, because such has been his growth. In April, when the IPL started, he was just a promising youngster but by the Champions Trophy he became a crucial member of a star-studded Rajasthan Royals batting lineup. He has done the same thing for his domestic side Kerala as well. In 2011 his was a promising debutant, but now he is undoubtedly the linchpin of Kerala batting.

The chance to share the dressing room with the likes of Rahul Dravid, Shane Watson and Bradd Hodge has done him a world of good, it seems. The craving for runs that he had displayed during the IPL, Champions League and very recently in the Ranji Trophy matches against Assam and Andhra is certainly a star quality, that might have rubbed on to him from Dravid. Well, Dravid and Sanju are batsmen in different moulds, I agree, but there are certain qualities that Sanju seems to have inherited from the batting genius.

He was more than prepared to take his time even in the shortest format of the game and there were only very few instances were he got lured into playing a wild stroke. Sanju played intelligently, mostly followed the fours and sixes with singles. His attacking strokes, were more than mere slogs, mostly down the ground and through the covers with a straight bat, which is a very good modes operandi even for the longer formats of the game. And moreover the way his young slender shoulders have carried the responsibility, be it for RR or Kerala, is awe-inspiring. He was lucky that he interned at the ‘Rahul Dravid school of Cricket’, and the tenure has seemingly set him on his journey to become a complete batsman.

T20 cricket is not the right examination of a batsman’s talent. And you can say that T20 cricket is all about crazy hitting. But Sanju has proved that he has got a method to this T20 madness, a method that could even be put to good use in the longer format of the game. And moreover he is continuing his T20 feats in the Ranji Trophy. He has posted consecutive centuries, one of them a double-century, from the opening two matches of the season.

Yes it is true that he dazzled in batting-friendly Indian conditions and a tour to Australia or South Africa would be his real test. But his sojourn thus far he has shown glimpses of his abundant talent at a very tender age, which is rather reassuring. Well, the opening has been phenomenal and now it is a question of his consistency and commitment before he embraces his long-cherished dream of winning a Test cap for India.