Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson is hoping his team will play fearless cricket and end his team’s 13-year Indian Premier League (IPL) title drought.
Rajasthan Royals, the first IPL champions in 2008, have built an impressive team this season, alongside Samson with some great players like Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal.
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“Our main focus is to get together as soon as possible. We have a different squad this time, some new members in the team, so it’s important to come together and understand your teammates,” Samson said ahead of RR’s 2022 IPL opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday.
“We definitely learned a lot from the last 2-3 seasons. We discussed and worked on some options and we got a really good team for the auction,” he said during a virtual press conference on Monday.
Sanju said the Royals have had variety in the team this season for the nearly two-month tournament.
“We have a lot of Indian and international strength in our team. It’s a very long tournament. We need to understand the mindset and the fitness and form of all players. But we have enough opportunities to play around,” he said.
“I think this format needs to be played with a lot of fearless mindset and those types of characters are there on this team this year. So we’d just like to get out there and express ourselves.” Lasith Malinga has recently become the team’s bowling coach at the Rajasthan Royals and Samson said the Sri Lankan pace legend adds a lot of value and makes his job easier.
The first match needs the loudest cheers. ?????
Where are you going?????????? ?????? from? ?? #RoyalsFamily | #????????? | #TAAIPL2022 | #SRHvRR pic.twitter.com/s92S9kmMPw
– Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) March 29, 2022
“It’s great to have people like Lasith and Kumar Sangakkara (Director of Cricket) who we grew up with and who almost every cricketer admires for what they have achieved on the field. They’re just trying to help youngsters like us understand their game better now,” he said.
“Whatever conversations we’ve had with Lasith, he makes bowling look very simple and easy and gives every bowler in the side a lot of clarity. He definitely makes a lot of things easier for me as captain.”
RR will play their first match on March 29th at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Ground.
