Sanju Samson: Can he deliver on his vast potential?

In the past year or so a lot has been heard about Sanju Samson, the youngster from Kerala. Although he hasn’t been around the India cricketing circuit for long, the ripples that he has created is humongous. Most of us came to know him during IPL 2013, where he later went on to bag the ‘Best young player of the season award’ which was carried out through an official poll. The 63 off 41 balls for the Rajasthan Royals, which he scored against the Royal Challengers was particularly impressive, via which he caught the attention of many including his franchise captain and batting great Rahul Dravid who reckons him as a shining star for the future. Batting is not all that he is about; Samson is also considered to be an acrobatic keeper who epitomizes confidence behind the stumps. He has also been part of the India U-19 team including the U-19 Asia Cup which turned out to be a disappointment for Samson. However, his efforts for the U-19 team have been appreciated, which has also helped him earn the vice-captaincy. Starting from the U-16 team, Samson made news in Kerala from a very tender age and then went on to represent the state Ranji side. He has a healthy average in the mid-forties in first class cricket. More recently, representing the Royals in the Champions league T20, Samson put on some excellent performances scoring 3 fifties in six matches, which further reiterated the promise that he possesses.
Samson is one of many promising young batsmen that India produces every few years but the growth curve for those players have not been the same. Some bag the opportunities quickly and taste success early like Virat Kohli and some others like Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma had to slog a lot before settling in in the national side despite having all that talent. So, whether Samson lives up to his talent remains to be seen. Over the years, India has lost talented players like Hemang Badani and Mohammad Kaif and so it’s imperative that a proper talent management system is put in place in the Indian domestic structure which can look after some star marked players and groom them properly which could help them channelize the talent in the right direction. In this day and age, there is lot which can distract youngsters like the IPL, money involved, involvement with the glamour world and so for the betterment of Indian cricket, the management of young players is very important from a futuristic point of view. Another dimension to this is whether the player himself can handle the pressure of modern day cricket despite having all right intentions and so proper mentoring becomes instrumental. Moreover, Samson has also this added responsibility where the state of Kerala considers him the flag bearer for cricket in the state and relies on him to take the game forward in the region. Well, to be honest, that is a lot to ask for from a 19 year old. Hence, what Samson can do currently is to do the rights things by working on the fundamentals of his game and he obviously has the IPL at his disposal to learn from international cricketers. However, talent is nothing without opportunity and so let’s hope that this young starlet gets his opportunities in due course of time.