The 25-year-old Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson has recently revealed the toughest bowler he has faced in the Indian Premier League (IPL) career.
Sanju Samson is growing up as a good effective wicketkeeper-batsman who has already played four T20Is after making international cricket debut in July 2015. While he is consistently improving his quality, many believe that he can be one of the futures of the Indian team.
Though the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) signed Samson for the IPL 2012, he made the IPL debut in 2013 during his first tenure for Rajasthan Royals (RR; 2013-2015). When the Rajasthan franchise was suspended, Samson served for the Delhi Daredevils (DD; 2016-2017). Samson returned to the Rajasthan franchise in 2018 edition and he is serving for this team continuously till the date.
After playing 93 IPL matches, the right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman Samson has scored 2,209 runs with an average of 27.61. Apart from scoring ten half-centuries, he has also hit two centuries in IPL career, once in IPL 2017 (102 against Rising Pune Supergiant) and the other once in IPL 2019 (102* against Sunrisers Hyderabad).
Sanju Samson named Sunil Narine as his toughest IPL bowler
Recently, during an interview with Manorama Online, Samson revealed that the Caribbean off-spinner Sunil Narine, who is playing for KKR since 2012, was the toughest bowler for him in IPL career.
Samson said, “Sunil Narine. Though I have played well against him in the IPL, he’s a superb bowler.”
Till the date, Samson has faced the off-spinner Narine only in the IPL tournament. In the IPL career, Samson has scored 39 runs against Narine’s 45 balls (only four and only six). On the other hand, Narine has dismissed him for thrice.
Sanju Samson (batsman) vs Sunil Narine (bowler) in T20 cricket
| Stats | Runs | Balls | Dismissals | Dots | 4s/6s | Strike-rate |
| Overall | 39 | 45 | 3 | 19 | 1/1 | 86.67 |
Sunil Narine is the most wicket-taker as a foreign spinner in IPL history. He has taken 122 wickets in 110 matches. Narine also won two Player of the Tournament (Most Valuable Player) awards in IPL history (2012 and 2018).