Sanju Samson explains why Ashwin opened and Padikkal came at No 4 vs PBKS

Guwahati: Jos Buttler was prevented from opening the batting for Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings in Guwahati on Wednesday. Chasing a massive 198-run total, RR needed to rethink their plans.

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The England limited-overs captain needed stitches while trying to take a catch in the field. With the physiotherapist taking longer than allowed in the mid-innings break, Royals sent in Ravichandran Ashwin to open and held Devdutt Padikkal back.

The move didn’t work out. Padikkal largely struggled, scoring 21 runs from 26 balls, which took away the momentum. Royals, who had managed 57 in the powerplay, although at the cost of three wickets, lost their way thereafter. In the next four overs, they got 32 runs while only 35 runs came from 11-15 overs, with the team slipping to 124/6.

Read | Why Devdutt Padikkal is a misfit in this Rajasthan Royals middle-order

Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson explained the reasoning behind the batting shuffle later, “Jos had a small injury, he got injured while fielding and was getting stitches. The physio wanted some time, which wasn’t there to finish the stitches and then go out to open. The thinking of sending Ashwin (to open) and holding everyone back, thinking to hold Devdutt Padikkal in the middle overs was to specially face the spinners they had. They had a leg-spinner and a left-arm spinner bowling in the middle overs. Padikkal, a left-hander batting in the middle and getting a couple of sixes, was the planning.”

“Yes I think it’s very important in games like this, where the momentum shifts away from you. We started off really well, we finished the powerplay really well. I think in the middle (overs) we were expecting us to get those boundaries here and there. (But) they bowled really well, two, three (tight) overs together. That’s where the momentum went a bit down. But we did really well to get so close. A couple of fours here and there, I think we just fell short of a six, just one ball hit away,” he said about the outcome of the game.

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Despite this drop in momentum and loss of wickets, Rajasthan Royals ran close courtesy an 18-ball 36 by Shimron Hetmyer and 32 off 15 by Impact Player and debutant Dhruv Jurel. Speaking about 22-year-old Jurel, Sanju Samson talked about the development process of the Royals.

“That’s how we work as a franchise. He has been with us from the last two seasons. He was playing a lot of domestic games. What we do as a franchise, we tend to have camps just before the IPL. People who play domestic cricket, they keep on coming to our academies. We did about five to seven camps of a week each throughout the year. We did it in Nagpur, Jaipur, Chennai, Bangalore, almost everywhere. We made sure that people like Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag and all these guys get enough practice.

“Our team management, especially Zubin Barucha (Director of High Performance) put in lots and lots of hours in making someone like a Dhruv Jurel to come and bat the way he did in his first game, playing international bowlers at this pressure situation. That says a lot about him and we are very hopeful he comes again and wins us a few games,” added Samson.

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