IPL 2018: Shoaib Akhtar showers praise on Rajasthan Royals youngster

Young Sanju Samson has garnered attention from the entire cricketing fraternity at regular intervals owing to his exceptional talent with the bat. The ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen him produce two quickfire knocks in consecutive games, re-instilling the average onlooker’s faith in his batting abilities. It was Shoaib Akhtar who recently took to Twitter to laud the youngster.

The legendary Pakistani pacer, Akhtar, who had himself participated in the inaugural edition of the glamorous T20 league back in 2008, can often be found taking an immense interest in cricketing action all over the globe. The speedster, who’s been following the ongoing match between the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and the Delhi Daredevils (DD) sides, tweeted his observation about Samson. Akhtar also raised questions regarding the youngster’s inclusion in the national side.

Young Sanju Samson has found a new fan in Shoaib Akhtar

23 years-old Sanju Samson seems to have found his touch from the very beginning of the 2018 edition of the IPL. Playing for the Rajasthan side, Samson played a solid knock worth 49 runs off 42 deliveries in his team’s first match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) side on Monday. Although RR was unable to win the match, Samson’s batting heroics did not go unnoticed.

Picking up right from where he had left off, the young batsman played a stunner against Delhi Daredevils. He scored 37 runs off just 22 balls, including 2 boundaries and sixers apiece, before being bowled out by Shahbaz Nadeem. This very innings of his prompted veteran pacer, Akhtar to shower praise on Samson.

Here’s what Shoaib Akhtar tweeted:

Watching the IPL game DD vs Rajasthan royal & seeing Samson batting beautifully & hammering bowler @ will what a talent…but still surprised why he’s not making to a national team on permanent bases ..

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) April 11, 2018

Akhtar ended his tweet with a pertinent question as to why Samson has not found a spot in the Indian side yet, apart from the single T20I he played back in 2015. Considering that Sanju Samson is a batsman-wicketkeeper, the young man faces severe competition from the likes of Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik, especially in the shorter formats of the game. His IPL records are quite impressive with a total of 1512 runs in 68 matches at a strike rate of 124.96.