RR skipper Sanju Samson reveals reason behind not sending Jos Buttler to open against Punjab Kings

In an utter shock for the cricket experts and fans as well, Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson didn’t send the veteran batter Jos Buttler to open the innings for the hosts. Instead of the latter, he opted to go ahead with the senior all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin in the opening who failed to impress with the bat and went back without getting off the mark after playing four balls.

After losing the match to Punjab Kings by a close margin of 5 runs, Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson revealed the reason behind not sending Buttler in the opening, later during the post-match presentation.

“Jos was not fit. He was getting stitches for his finger after the catch. The thinking was with Padikkal, they have two spinners, a left-arm, and a leggie, and we wanted a lefty out there in the middle overs,” said Samson on being asked about Buttler.

Apart from that, he also talked about the match and the performance of young Rajasthan player Dhruv Jurel who impressed everyone with his quick and blistering cameo.

Sanju Samson heaped praises on young star Dhruv Jurel

“It's really a pleasure. He has been with us for the last two seasons. Lots and lots of work has gone behind him. We all are really happy. When you come to the IPL, it's a one-week camp before the IPL starts but these guys put in 5 weeks of work coming to our academy facing thousands of balls. We're happy to have a batsman like that in our team,” Samson added later on Dhruv Jurel.

“Dew, I was expecting it to come in the second half of the game but it was right there in the first innings. It was a high-scoring game and I think we'll be a bit more prepared in the next game,” he concluded.