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Thread: ★★★ Sanju Samson - Official Thread ★★★

  1. #11
    F.K. VazhipokkaN BangaloreaN's Avatar
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    The selectors and the team’s think-tank felt there was no need to go backwards, refer to the performances in the 2011 World Cup and choose one or two just for the sake of experience.

    So the likes of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and Piyush Chawla were omitted from the 30 probables list for the ICC World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand from February 14 to March 29, 2015.

    The seam bowlers in the probables’ list are Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma and Ashoke Dinda.

    The spinners are R. Ashwin, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.

    The deadline for submitting the condensed squad to the ICC is January 7.

    Vinay discarded

    Karnataka seamer R. Vinay Kumar, whose eight wickets in the home series against Australia 12 months ago came at a costly 43.13, has also not been included. The 30-year-old Vinay Kumar has played 31 matches and taken 38 wickets at 37.79 and clearly the selectors and the think-tank believe he’s not the kind of medium-pacer who will come up trumps in Australia and New Zealand.

    In the 16 ODIs he has played overseas, he has taken 19 wickets at 36.00.

    The selectors who met at the Cricket Centre on Thursday chose 25 players from the teams that played the three-match ODI series in Bangladesh last June. Suresh Raina was the captain then. Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 38 runs in three matches at 12. 67, has also not been considered.

    Bengal pacer Dinda virtually walked into the squad with a match-winning performance in the Deodhar Trophy final against West Zone on Wednesday.

    Kerala’s Sanju Samson (second wicketkeeper for the five-match series in England), Murali Vijay (sent as replacement for Rohit Sharma for the ODI series in England), Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey and Uttar Pradesh unorthodox wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who has played two under-19 series in Australia, have also got the nod.

    Balanced team

    BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said captain M.S. Dhoni’s views were taken into account before finalising the probables. “It’s a balanced team; the selectors deliberated a lot. Recent performances were taken into account.”

    When asked whether the likes of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh have played their last for India, Patel said: “I would not like to comment on this. It was a pure cricket performance and the requirement of time as well as the performances of the young players.

    “All of us should be happy that a lot of young cricketers have been considered. The process was absolutely clear and complete with all aspects discussed. After due process the probables were selected.”

    The following is the list of probables:

    M.S. Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Sanju Samson, R. Ashwin, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay

  2. #12
    F.K. VazhipokkaN BangaloreaN's Avatar
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    ലോകകപ്പ്: സഞ്ജു സാംസണ്* സാധ്യതാലിസ്റ്റില്*

    ന്യൂഡല്*ഹി: ന്യൂസിലണ്ടിലും ഓസ്*ട്രേലിയയിലുമായി നടക്കുന്ന 2015ലെ ക്രിക്കറ്റ് ലോകകപ്പിനുള്ള ഇന്ത്യന്* സാധ്യതാ ടീമില്* കേരള താരം സഞ്ജു സാംസണ്* ഇടംനേടി. ആദ്യമായിട്ടാണ് സാംസണ്* ലോകകപ്പ് ഇന്ത്യന്* ടീമില്* ഇടംനേടുന്നത്. ഓസ്*ട്രേലിയയില്* നടന്ന ചതുരാഷ്ട്ര പരമ്പരയില്* ഇന്ത്യന്* എ ടീമിലുണ്ടായിരുന്ന സഞ്ജുവ് മികച്ച പ്രകടനമാണ് കാഴ്ചവെച്ചത്.

    2014 ആഗസ്തിലാണ് സഞ്ജു ആദ്യമായി ഇന്ത്യന്* ടീമിലെത്തിയത്. ഇന്ത്യയുടെ ഇംഗ്ലണ്ട് പര്യടനത്തിലായിരുന്നു ഇത്. ആഭ്യന്തരക്രിക്കറ്റിലും മികച്ച ഫോമിലായിരുന്ന സഞ്ജു കഴിഞ്ഞ രഞ്ജി സീസണില്* കേരളത്തിന്റെ ടോപ് സ്*കോററായിരുന്നു.

    മുപ്പതംഗ സാധ്യതാടീമില്* 2011 ലെ ലോകകപ്പ് ജയിച്ച ഇന്ത്യന്* ടീമിലെ അംഗങ്ങളായിരുന്ന വീരേന്ദര്* സേവാഗ്, സഹീര്* ഖാന്*, യുവരാജ് സിംഗ്, ഗൗതം ഗംഭീര്*, ഹര്*ഭജന്* സിംഗ് എന്നിവര്*ക്ക് ഇടം നേടാനായില്ല.

    സാധ്യതാ ടീം: മഹേന്ദ്ര സിംഗ് ധോനി, ശിഖര്* ധവാന്*, രോഹിത് ശര്*മ, രഹാനെ, ഉത്തപ്പ, കോലി, റൈന, റായിഡു, കേദാര്* ജാദവ്, മനോജ് തിവാരി, മനീഷ് പാണ്ഡെ, സാഹ, സഞ്ജു, അശ്വിന്*, റസൂല്*, കരണ്* ശര്*മ, അമിത് മിശ്ര, ജഡേജ, അക്ഷര്* പട്ടേല്*, ഇശാന്ത് ശര്*മ, ഭുവനേശ്വര്* കുമാര്*, മുഹമ്മദ് ഷമി, ഉമേഷ് യാദവ്, വരുണ്* ആരോണ്*, ധവാല്* കുല്*ക്കര്*ണി, സ്റ്റുവര്*ട്ട് ബിന്നി, മോഹിത് ശര്*മ, അശോക് ഡിന്*ഡ, കുല്*ദീപ് യാദവ്, മുരളി വിജയ്.

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  4. #14
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    Sanju Samson celebrates after scoring a double-century, Kerala v Services, Ranji Trophy 2014-15


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    Samson, spinners hurt Services

    A second first-class double-hundred from Sanju Samson and useful scores from the lower order moved Kerala to a total of 483 before their spinners got on top of the Services batsmen on a pitch with increasingly inconsistent bounce. At stumps in Tellicherry, Services were three down, trailing by 398, with two days still left to play on a quickly wearing surface.

    Saurabh Kumar, Services' lone specialist spinner, had got a few balls to climb awkwardly in the first two sessions, but having already bowled 29 overs on day one, he perhaps lacked the freshness to really use his body and derive more help from the pitch. The Kerala spinners, though, made an immediate impact, bowling from both ends with the new ball.

    Both Akshay Chandran, the debutant left-arm spinner, and Vinoop Manoharan, the offspinner, got balls to jump from a length in the first few overs, and the Services openers made no effort to attack them and scatter the close-in fielders. They had crawled to 9 for 0 after 10 overs when Soumik Chatterjee played back to a ball from Chandran that crept along the pitch and had him lbw.

    In the next over, the part-time legspinner Amit Verma, replacing Manoharan, struck with a long-hop that Sumit Singh slapped straight to short cover. Verma switched ends and struck again 11.2 nervy overs later, getting Anshul Gupta to top-edge a sweep to first slip.

    Services saw the day through without further mishap, with their two best batsmen, Rajat Paliwal and Yashpal Singh, putting on 41 for the fourth wicket. Paliwal, their captain, swept well and stayed alert for opportunities to cut and pull the spinners on his way to an unbeaten 45, while Yashpal moved quietly to 10.

    Resuming on 273 for 4, Kerala lost Rohan Prem in the eighth over of the morning, bowled by a Suraj Yadav yorker, his third of five wickets. Samson moved smoothly along at the other end, and gained momentum into the 170s. He reverse-swept Saurabh for four to move to 175, swatted a short ball from medium-pacer Deepak Punia wide of mid-on in the next over and dabbed the next ball to third man to go to 183. At that point he had scored 40 of the 50 runs Kerala had added since the morning.

    When Saurabh switched to left-arm over, Samson toyed with him, playing an inside-out push just wide of long-off to pick up two and sweeping the next ball powerfully to bisect deep square leg and deep midwicket. He brought up 200 in Saurabh's next over, leaning back to slap him away to the cover point boundary. The landmark had come off 254 balls.

    Kerala continued to pile on the runs, though at a more subdued rate, after Samson had edged part-time seamer Sumit Singh to the keeper. Kerala's team selection had sought to extend their batting line-up as far as possible, with Akshay Kodoth - normally a wicketkeeper but playing as a specialist batsman - at No. 7, the allrounder Raiphi Gomez at No. 8, and both their spinners handy with the bat. All contributed, and Kerala's last four pairs added 122 before Chandran miscued Suraj to cover to bring the innings to an end at the stroke of tea.

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    Sanju roars back to form with double ton in Ranji


    Sanju V. Samson celebrates his hundred against Services at Thalassery on Thursday. Photo: By special arrangement (Ranjith Peralam)





    Thalassery: Kerala's star batsman Sanju Samson brought up his double century in the Ranji Trophy Group C match between Kerala and Services here on Friday.
    Sanju, who ended Day 1 on 143 not out, reached the landmark in the first session on Friday, before being dismissed shortly after (207).
    The 20-year-old, who was struggling for form so far this season, gave an exhibition of fine strokeplay, hitting 27 fours and four sixes from 264 balls.
    At the time of filing this report, Kerala are at 393/6 from 124 overs, with Akshay Kodath (33) and Raiphi Vincent Gomez (15) at the crease.

  7. #17
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    രഞ്ജിട്രോഫി: സഞ്ജുവിന് ഇരട്ട സെഞ്ചുറി


    തലശ്ശേരി: തലശ്ശേരിയില്* നടക്കുന്ന കേരളവും സര്*വീസസും തമ്മിലുള്ള രഞ്ജിട്രോഫി ക്രിക്കറ്റ്്് മത്സരത്തില്* സഞ്ജു വി.സാംസണ് ഇരട്ടസെഞ്ചുറി. കരിയറിലെ രണ്ടാമത്തെ ഇരട്ടസെഞ്ചുറിയാണ് സഞ്ജു തലശ്ശേരിയില്* സ്വന്തമാക്കിയത്.

    ഗുവാഹാട്ടിയില്* കഴിഞ്ഞ രഞ്ജിട്രോഫി മത്സരത്തില്* അസമിനെതിരെയായിരുന്നു ആദ്യ ഇരട്ടസെഞ്ചുറി. സുമിത്തിന്റെ ബൗളിങ്ങില്* വെള്ളിയാഴ്ച രാവിലെ പുറത്താകുമ്പോഴേക്കും സഞ്ജു 264 പന്തില്* 207 റണ്*സ് നേടി.

    സഞ്ജുവിന് പിന്തുണയുമായി രോഹന്* പ്രേം 45, അക്ഷയ് കോടോത്ത്്് 35, റൈഫി വിന്*സന്റ്് ഗോമസ് 42, അരങ്ങേറ്റം കുറിച്ച തലശ്ശേരിക്കാരന്* അക്ഷയ്്് ചന്ദ്രന്* 39 എന്നിങ്ങനെ റണ്*സെടുത്തു.

    കേരളം ആദ്യ ഇന്നിങ്*സില്* 147.2 ഓവറില്* 483 റണ്*സിന് ഓളൗട്ടായി. ആദ്യദിനം കളിനിര്*ത്തുമ്പോള്* കേരളം നാലുവിക്കറ്റ്്് നഷ്ടത്തില്* 273 റണ്*സ് എന്ന നിലയിലായിരുന്നു. രണ്ടാംദിനം 210 റണ്*സ് കൂടി കൂട്ടിച്ചേര്*ത്തു.

    സര്*വീസസിനുവേണ്ടി സൂരജ്് യാദവ് അഞ്ചും ദീപക് പുനിയ രണ്ടും സൗരഭ്, സുമിത്, രജത് എന്നിവര്* ഓരോ വിക്കറ്റും വീഴ്ത്തി.

    മറുപടിബാറ്റിങ്ങിനിറങ്ങിയ സര്*വീസസ് രണ്ടാംദിനം കളിനിര്*ത്തുമ്പോള്* മൂന്നു വിക്കറ്റിന് 85 റണ്*സ് എന്ന നിലയിലാണ്. 10 റണ്*സെടുക്കുന്നതിനിടെ അവരുടെ രണ്ടുവിക്കറ്റ്്് വീണു. കളി നിര്*ത്തുമ്പോള്* രജത് പലിവാല്* 45-ഉം യശ്പാല്* പത്തും റണ്*സുമായി പുറത്താകാതെ നില്ക്കുകയാണ്.

    കേരളത്തിനുവേണ്ടി അക്ഷയ്്് ചന്ദ്രന്* 27 റണ്*സിന് ഒരു വിക്കറ്റും അമിത് വര്*മ 26 റണ്*സിന് രണ്ടു വിക്കറ്റും വീഴ്ത്തി.
    ഇത്തവണ രഞ്ജി മത്സരത്തില്* മികച്ച പ്രകടനം നടത്താന്* കഴിയാതിരുന്ന സഞ്ജുവിന് തലശ്ശേരിയില്* സ്വപ്*നസമാനമായ പ്രകടനം കാഴ്ചവെയ്ക്കാനായി. കഴിഞ്ഞതവണ സഞ്ജു തലശ്ശേരിയില്* സെഞ്ചുറി നേടിയിരുന്നു.

  8. #18
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    രഞ്*ജിട്രോഫി: സഞ്*ജു സാംസണ്* ഇരട്ടശതകം; കേരളം പിടിമുറുക്കി


    കണ്ണൂര്*: രഞ്*ജിട്രോഫി ക്രിക്കറ്റില്* ഇന്ത്യന്* താരം സഞ്*ജു സാംസന്റെ മികവില്* കേരളം പിടിമുറുക്കി. സര്*വീസസിനെതിരേ കരിയറിലെ രണ്ടാമത്തെ ഇരട്ട ശതകം കണ്ടെത്തിയ സഞ്*ജുവിന്റെ മികവ്* ബാറ്റിംഗ്* തകര്*ച്ച നേരിട്ട കേരളത്തിന്* തുണയായി. ആറു വിക്കറ്റ്* നഷ്*ടത്തില്* 393 റണ്*സ്* നേടിയാണ്* കേരളം നില്*ക്കുന്നത്*.

    ടോസ്* നേടി ബാറ്റിംഗിന്* അയയ്*ക്കപ്പെട്ട കേരളത്തിനായി 207 റണ്*സാണ്* സഞ്*ജു നേടിയത്*. ഇന്നലെ നിര്*ത്തിയിടത്ത്* നിന്നും തുടങ്ങിയ സഞ്*ജു 264 പന്തുകളിലാണ്* 207 റണ്*സ്* നേടിയത്*. 27 ബൗണ്ടറിയും നാലു സിക്*സറുകളും സഞ്*ജു പറത്തി.

    ഓപ്പണര്*മാരായ ഹെഗ്*ഡേ (24)യും എന്* സുരേന്ദ്ര (19) നും പുറത്തായ ശേഷം ബാറ്റിംഗ്* ഏറ്റെടുത്ത സഞ്*ജു തകര്*പ്പന്* ഫോമിലായിരുന്നു. അതേസമയം സഞ്*ജു പുറത്തായ ശേഷം വന്നവര്*ക്കൊന്നും ഈ പേസ്* നിലനിര്*ത്താനായില്ല. അമിത്* വര്*മ്മ (33), സച്ചിന്*ബേബി (ഒന്ന്*), രോഹന്* പ്രേം (45) എന്നിവരെല്ലാം നേരത്തേ പുറത്തായി. 33 റണ്*സ്* എടുത്ത കോഡോത്തും 15 റണ്* നേടിയ ഗോമസുമാണ്* ഇപ്പോള്* ക്രീസില്*.

  9. #19

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    The tale of Samson

    Only 20 and yet to make his India debut, Sanju Samson is already a poster boy for the IPL generation
    Karthik Krishnaswamy | May 2015

    It is day one of Kerala v Services at the Conor Vayal Stadium in Tellicherry. An hour and a half into the morning session, when Kerala lose their first wicket, Sanju Samson straps on his helmet, steps over the boundary rope, and turns to glance at the sky.

    Apart from the pavilion and a small office building at the opposite end, this is an open ground ringed by coconut trees. It is picturesque in a small-town way and perhaps its most distinguishing feature is its drinks trolley. Kerala's cricketing accomplishments are modest, but its cricket grounds have the most distinctive drinks trolleys in the country. Up in Wayanad, the ground staff wheel out a life-size model elephant at every drinks break. Here in Tellicherry it is a fishing boat.

    The last time I watched Sanju bat up close was in an entirely different setting. It was in April last year, when he made a 34-ball 52 for Rajasthan Royals against Kings XI Punjab in the IPL. He caressed the third ball he faced to the cover boundary and sent his sixth soaring over the tent-like roofs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The crowd, a sizeable chunk of which represented the region's expat Malayali population, went mad.

    Here in Tellicherry there is no crowd to speak of. I am the only journalist in the makeshift press enclosure in the upper deck of the pavilion; a couple of others will arrive later in the day.

    Kerala v Services is an unimportant match in the larger scheme of things. Both teams sit in the middle of the table in Group C, the lower tier of the Ranji Trophy, and have close to no chance of promotion. But it is an important match for Sanju, a chance to extricate himself from his first prolonged slump. Since his return in September from England, where he was part of India's ODI and T20 squads, Sanju has made over 50 in only one out of 16 innings for India A, Kerala and South Zone. The first six matches of his Ranji Trophy season have been a story of promising starts: 24, 17, 5, 22, 89, 30, 19 and 41. With two games to go, the sequence of scores could come to mean anything. Add 113 and he will average 40. Anything less than 23 and his average will dip below 30.

    Growing up playing with friends in the Police residential colony in the North Delhi neighbourhood of GTB Nagar, Sanju and his older brother Saly couldn't get away with low scores. If they were out early, their father, Viswanath Samson, who organised these tennis-ball matches, would tell them to go home.

    "The gate to our complex was some 100, 200 metres away, and Sanju would walk away slowly, stop midway, and turn," Viswanath says. "I'd say, 'Bol diya na? Ja [I told you, no? Go].' Then he would stand by the gate, this small boy, seven or eight years old, standing there, far away, looking at me."

    Viswanath chuckles at the memory, but his word was final. Sanju had to go home.

    It was a counter-intuitive move, to go from Delhi, one of Indian cricket's nerve centres, to Kerala, a state with a marginal cricketing presence

    A centre forward for the Delhi Police for 22 years, Viswanath looks every inch the retired footballer in his cargo shorts and polo-neck T-shirt. He is compactly built, with a closely trimmed moustache and the beginnings of a paunch.

    Once, when Sanju was bowled, his father demanded an explanation. "What to do, I didn't want to go home," Sanju says. "So I told my father the ball hit a hole and turned." The next day, the children of the colony formed a barricade around their patch of road, waving vehicles away from it. Viswanath had arranged to cement their pitch.

    Apart from the time he devoted to football training, Viswanath's days revolved around his sons' cricket. He would bring the children of the neighbourhood together, draw lots and make them bat until each was dismissed. He would take Saly and Sanju to the practice sessions of the Delhi Police cricket team, among whom Viswanath had a number of friends. "I would tell them to bowl to Sanju and Saly, however fast you want. They were 25-year-old bowlers, and the boys would play them comfortably, even if they bowled from 15 yards."

    Both brothers were soon playing for their school and pushing for selection in Delhi's age-group teams. Still, Viswanath felt their talent might hit a wall. "I was a small man," he says. "Big-big people play cricket in Delhi - businessmen, IAS [Indian Administrative Service], IPS [Indian Police Service], people in politics."
    With dad Viswanath Samson in the family home in Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram

    With dad Viswanath Samson in the family home in Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    So, around a year after his retirement from football, Viswanath retired from his job and decided to move back to Thiruvananthapuram, his home town. It was a counter-intuitive move, to go from Delhi, one of Indian cricket's nerve centres, to Kerala, a state with a marginal cricketing presence and a team that has long been one of the Ranji Trophy's punching bags. From their debut in 1957-58 to 2001-02, Kerala reached the second round only twice. In the last 13 seasons, when the tournament has been split into divisions, they have been in the top tier just once. Only two Kerala players, Tinu Yohannan and Sreesanth, had played for India when the Samsons moved back in 2006.

    Most batsmen in India grow up playing a see-ball-hit-ball brand of cricket on the streets, and learn to play with a straight bat when they come into contact with organised coaching. Sanju followed a slightly different trajectory.

    "In Delhi, I was more of a 'V' player," he says. "I didn't want to get out, or my father would send me home. Only after I came to Trivandrum [Thiruvananthapuram] I started playing all these shots." He demonstrates with his hands a leg-side whip - presumably from off stump - and a steer behind point.

    Sanju found the freedom to play those shots when he arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College ground as an 11-year-old, and came under the wing of Biju George, who had been coaching there since 2000.

    Biju is 49 but he is still slim and wiry, with no hint of grey in his hair or in his thick moustache. The only sign of all the years he has spent on the coaching circuit - among other roles, he has served as a talent scout for Kolkata Knight Riders, fielding coach for India Under-19, and head coach of the Kuwait national team - is the relative size of his forearms. He lines them up against each other and you realise the right forearm is significantly bigger.

    "Throwdowns," he says.

    Right from the start, Biju made Sanju bat against the best bowlers in the academy, including those who had already played for Kerala.

    "If you're good enough," Biju says, "you're old enough."

    What impressed Biju the most was Sanju's willingness to try anything to improve his game.

    "Before the Champions League [in 2013], he had to play Mumbai Indians and Mitchell Johnson," says Biju. "So he was thinking, 'What to do, how to get that sort of speed?' Obviously nobody here will be that quick. We had the concrete [pitch], we put a coir matting on top of it, stretched it out, and poured water. Then we put these flex-board sheets, plastic sheets, on top of that. And guys were bowling from 18 yards with the hard synthetic ball.

    "It was flying. He was getting hit, then he was playing. When he went there, he could handle Mitchell Johnson with absolute ease. So you try anything with him, he is ready. Not like, 'Sir, I'll get hit, IPL is coming up.'"

    In the pre-IPL days, Sanju may have taken longer to acquire his new house and SUV. Or find a place next to Tendulkar and Ronaldo in a row of posters outside a sports shop

    Raiphi Gomez has a mediocre first-class record as a seam-bowling allrounder but he has always had the potential to play outlandishly explosive innings. In 2010 he smashed an unbeaten 88 off 29 balls for Kerala in a 50-over match against Hyderabad. He hit five sixes and a four in the final over of the innings.

    Among the senior players who took him under their wing when he first arrived at Biju's academy, Sanju is closest to Gomez. He even began supporting Barcelona because Gomez is a fan.

    "Before each and every match I call him, discuss the conditions, how I can prepare," Sanju says. "He really knows my character very clearly, he knows my game really clearly, he is like my big brother."

    Sanju picks out a six he hit against Knight Riders' left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla in 2013. "Raiphi bhai said Kolkata has a pretty slow wicket, so if you can wait for him [Abdulla] and aim over midwicket, you can hit him," Sanju says. "So I hit a six there."

    Watch the shot now. On air, Harsha Bhogle's first reaction is a chuckle that gives way to a fully articulated "Ha ha!" Then he picks up the key quality of the shot. "He just sat on the back foot, waited for the ball, and waited and waited... he's deposited it waaaay over midwicket."
    Samson's wicketkeeping has largely been restricted to limited-overs games

    Samson's wicketkeeping has largely been restricted to limited-overs games © BCCI

    Sanju struck 22 sixes in 23 IPL innings - before the start of this edition - and while that is a pretty good rate of six-hitting, it is the quality of his shots that makes you sit up. There is a video containing all 17 he hit in the 2014 season, and it makes for an exhilarating watch. Here is Sanju, 19, flat-batting L Balaji over long-off and launching Murali Kartik inside-out over extra cover. Ben Hilfenhaus bowls a slower ball and Sanju clears his front leg a fraction and smacks him over wide long-on. Dale Steyn comes steaming in and Sanju simply extends his arms through a straight drive, left elbow high, and lifts the ball back over his head. It travels 81 metres.

    Apart from the shot against Kartik, where he has skated smoothly away from his stumps to create room, Sanju has made no premeditated movements. Always his head is still. A chest-high short ball from Siddarth Kaul ends up in the stands behind long-off, and the broadcaster cuts to a square-on replay. From that angle, you get the best view of Sanju's backlift, with his arms in a classical diamond shape, his wrists cocked, his head still, and his weight evenly distributed but ready to shift onto the front foot.

    It is an utterly orthodox position, and he ends up playing a shot that can only be described as a down-the-line topspin forehand. It is a ridiculous shot, and he has made it look simple - a quality that has excited seasoned watchers of the game. Writing on ESPNcricinfo after the 2013 IPL season, Bhogle picked Sanju as one of his three players for the future. A year later, in an article for starsports.com, he wrote about the first shot he saw Sanju play, a cover drive in his first IPL season in 2013, and compared the effect it had on him to shots he watched Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly play before their India debuts.

    "There was also this calmness to him. You could see he wasn't the kind of kid who would get too excited if he did well or too disappointed if he failed" Rahul Dravid

    That cover drive came in a run chase against Pune Warriors in Sanju's fourth IPL match. He had walked in with Royals needing 29 from 17. The shot came off the first ball he faced, off the back foot, off Wayne Parnell. He got on top of the bounce off a fairly decent delivery - fourth stump, back of a length - and hit it between mid-off and extra cover. Sanju made 10 off six. Royals won with a ball to spare.

    In Tellicherry, against Services, Sanju cannot be contained, and by the time he has got to double figures he has already hit two fours, a whip wide of mid-on, against an off-stump ball, and a square drive. At lunch he is 32 not out. To the second ball after resumption he jumps out of his crease to hit left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar over the top. He doesn't quite reach the pitch and skews the ball high, but the cover fielder can't latch on.

    If the catch had been taken, it would have been another wasted start. Reprieved, Sanju cashes in. He brings up his half-century with an inside-out six off Kumar. The fielders scatter but he keeps finding the boundary. The post-tea session begins with only a wide slip within conversational range of the wicketkeeper, and he finds the gap between them with an impudent late dab. Sanju brings up his fifth first-class century with a slightly miscued boundary over mid-on and releases his pent-up frustration with a punch and a roar.

    "I think I scored my hundred after one and a half years," he later says. "So I came to realise how true people are to me. I came to realise who all are my good friends, and how I should be living my life, and what all I should be doing outside my cricket which will affect my game inside.

    "If you score runs, everyone says whatever I do is the best thing, and when I don't do well, they say things like, 'You are not focused enough, you are not giving enough time as you did before.' Now I know that it is all within myself."
    Kerala idol: that Sanju Samson is the state's next big cricketing hope is evident from his popularity among fans not many years younger than him

    Kerala idol: that Sanju Samson is the state's next big cricketing hope is evident from his popularity among fans not many years younger than him © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    On the second morning Sanju scores 40 of Kerala's first 50 runs, and soon brings up his double-hundred, off 254 balls. Still 20, Sanju is the only Kerala batsman to make two first-class double-centuries. He also has five hundreds; two more will bring him level with the Kerala record.

    Sanju's first-class average of 44.70 isn't flash when compared to Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane or Rohit Sharma, who all average 60-plus in domestic first-class games. But here is some context: 16 batsmen have scored more runs for Kerala than Sanju; not one of them has an average over 40.

    "I've been very lucky to play for India A and Rajasthan Royals, where I get a lot of competition," Sanju says when asked about playing against relatively weaker teams in the lower division. "In the Ranji Trophy, playing for a champion team may not bring the best out of you, but playing for a team like Kerala, where we want to get promoted, brings out the best in me."

    It is tempting to imagine where Sanju might be if not for the IPL. Especially when you see the swimming pool and the cricket nets in the backyard of his new house in Vizhinjam, a harbourside neighbourhood of Thiruvananthapuram. The architecture is of the traditional Kerala style: sloping tiled roofs and a pillared front courtyard with wicker chairs to read the newspaper in. From the outside it comes across as strangely understated - a pale blue house in a state that likes its yellows and pinks.

    "It was my father's dream for more than ten years," Sanju says. "He always used to say, 'We should have a house with cricket nets for you and Saly.'"

    Sanju is driving me from Vizhinjam to my hotel in central Thiruvananthapuram, a distance of about 14km. The drive from Vizhinjam to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College is longer, about 22km, and not too long ago, Sanju and Saly would cover this distance riding pillion on their father's motorcycle. Sometimes they would change buses to get there.

    "If you score runs, everyone says whatever I do is the best thing, and when I don't do well, they say things like, 'You are not focused enough'" Sanju Samson

    In the pre-IPL days, Sanju may have taken longer to acquire his new house and SUV. Or find a place next to Sachin Tendulkar and Cristiano Ronaldo in the row of life-size posters displayed outside a sporting goods shop opposite the Secretariat building in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram. He is a local boy, of course, but if Sanju were simply an excellent young first-class cricketer, the shop owner would have struggled to find a photograph to pin outside. In fact, until the day he completed his double-century in Tellicherry, ESPNcricinfo didn't have a single action photo of Sanju in whites. They were all of him in the blues of India A, India U-19 and Royals.

    Sanju likes wearing white, though. I chat with him on three separate occasions over two weeks and each time he wears a white t-shirt. Each seems to be designed to deflect attention away from him.

    Biju says he has never seen Sanju come to the Medical College nets in his IPL or India gear. "He is always wearing some old t-shirt, and usually chappals. He comes here, changes into his shoes and goes into the nets. When the session is over, when I am doing catching or something with the bigger boys, he is the guy who takes care of the younger kids. He does throwdowns for them."

    Last year, at the end of a day's play during another Ranji Trophy match in Tellicherry, Sanju saw a group of teenagers playing a tennis-ball match on a patch of grass outside the ground, and joined them. The Kerala team bus was ready to leave but Sanju was just getting started. It was only when the Kerala coach, Sujith Somasundar, yelled out that Sanju hopped into the team bus.

    Asked if it wasn't an unusual thing for an IPL star to do, Sanju says he would have it no other way.

    "The way people look at me has changed, yeah. They have started recognising me wherever I go. They expect more of me. I really respect that they started giving me more love based on whatever I have done in the IPL and Ranji Trophy. But I never think that I have become a hero of Kerala cricket. I have not changed in the last six or seven years. I am the same Sanju."
    Biju George wasn't afraid of exposing young Sanju to the best bowlers in his academy

    Biju George wasn't afraid of exposing young Sanju to the best bowlers in his academy © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    Biju says the desire to shun the limelight is the biggest difference between Sanju and Kerala's last big cricketing hope.

    "It has been very hard for him to adjust, because wherever he goes, people say 'Sanju, Sanju'. But now people have realised he doesn't have any hang-ups. There is a big difference between a Sreesanth and a Sanju. Kerala people are very happy seeing Sanju after what they saw with Sreesanth. Gives him almost a halo."

    Sreesanth, though, made an important contribution to Sanju's rise. In January 2013, Sanju was without an IPL franchise, after Knight Riders released him without giving him a first-team chance. Sreesanth took him for a trial at Royals.

    "Suddenly I found myself batting in front of Rahul Dravid and Paddy Upton," Sanju says. "I started playing strokes. I just expressed myself."

    After the second day of the trials, Dravid walked up to him. "He came and directly told me, 'Sanju, you have a very special talent and I would really love to make you play in my Rajasthan Royals team. Would you play for us?' He asked me like this. That question really shocked me."

    "I never think that I have become a hero of Kerala cricket. I have not changed in the last six or seven years. I am the same Sanju"

    Dravid, then Royals' captain, and now part of their management, had little doubt about Sanju's talent. "You could see immediately that he had the game, he had all the shots," Dravid says. "There was also this calmness to him. You could see he wasn't the kind of kid who would get too excited if he did well or too disappointed if he failed.

    "We made sure we gave him a lot of time at the nets, batting against guys like Shaun Tait. Coming up from junior cricket, U-19s, even Ranji Trophy, you don't face guys like Mitchell Johnson, bowling at 145-150kph. So it was just that small adjustment."

    Sanju sought out pretty much everyone in the squad, carrying a diary wherever he went to jot down gleanings. "I had a lot of questions in my diary," he says. "I asked the same question to different people. I asked the same question to [Brad] Hodge, same question to Rahul sir, same question to Shane Watson, and the same question to Ajinkya bhai.

    "In the first team meeting during the IPL, Brad Hodge said that in T20 cricket you should always look for boundaries. If you can't get boundaries then you should look for singles. If you are not able to get singles then you should get out of cricket. It is very true but very funny."

    Given the value he has added to Royals as a wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju was going to feature in discussions about MS Dhoni's long-term successor, especially after Dhoni's Test retirement late last year. Sanju keeps wicket in the IPL and in limited-overs matches for Kerala, but while he began his first-class career as a wicketkeeper, his role in the Ranji side is now mostly restricted to batting.

    Dravid suggests there is a good reason for this. "He is a very good keeper, and I'm sure he can be a regular keeper in one-day and T20 cricket. Four-day cricket, I guess you wouldn't want to lose his batting, because it can take a lot out of you, keeping for a day and a half, two days."
    This used to be my playground: Sanju Samson first came to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College grounds as an 11-year-old

    This used to be my playground: Sanju Samson first came to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College grounds as an 11-year-old © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    Sanju kept wicket in only one Ranji match this season and felt his concentration slipping. "You can say I was not fully there," he says. "I was there for 40 to 50 runs, then when I was batting on 60 or 70 I lost a bit of focus or a bit of full fitness. But if I get used to it, I think I can easily manage. Long term it depends on the team. If they want me to keep I will keep. Whatever my team demands I have to do it."

    Sanju has only recently learned to drive, but there is a calm assurance to the way his SUV glides over National Highway 47. It is like his batting against Services minus the initial spurts of over-exuberance. Signposts along the highway point down bylanes that lead to beach resorts, and I ask if he spent his childhood holidays at any of them. He shakes his head and says he was too busy playing cricket.

    On April 18, 2008, Sanju was in Kottayam, keeping wicket for Trivandrum U-16s as they moved towards an innings win over Alappuzha Under-16s. After the day's play, the Trivandrum players huddled in a hotel room and watched Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Knight Riders in the first ever IPL game. This was new, this was like nothing these boys had seen before.

    "Obviously," Sanju says, "we all wanted to play this tournament."

    Jumping out of a crease drawn in Bangalore and into a hotel room TV in Kottayam, Brendon McCullum repeatedly swatted short balls over long-off on his way to a 73-ball 158.

    It wouldn't be long before Sanju would play the same shot in the IPL, and play it his own way, with an air of stillness. He would do so before he turned 20, before he was picked for India. And he would do so in front of packed houses. It is fair to assume that some talented 13-year-old cricketer, watching at home or in a hotel room, probably growing up in a state with no real cricketing pretensions, has taken note.

    Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. Additional reporting from Nagraj Gollapudi, assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

    © ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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    POSTED BY kmpm on | May 5, 2015, 17:19 GMT

    I think at this point he is a little over rated. Hes for sure talented for his age and would certainly play for IND in the future but he needs to be patient and catch up. He might have strokes but gets out often to just a decent bowler. More patience and temperment (both in leeping and batting) will make him reach the apogee.
    POSTED BY MiddleStump on | May 5, 2015, 16:49 GMT

    Sanju Samson must get used to keeping wickets in first class matches and scoring runs as a batsman. He is only 20 so energy and fitness cannot be used as excuses. He must learn to concentrate and a develop a determination to stay in the middle for long hours as a batsman in order to be a successor to Dhoni in Tests. He and Sarfaraz Khan can develop into top class players if they are mentored wisely.
    POSTED BY esvee16 on | May 5, 2015, 14:56 GMT

    @jimBOND ON, you mentioned kerala is playing in the bottom league regularly,that could be possible only in the case of Ranji trophy.Keala were the semifinalists vijay hazare national 50 over format 3 years before.in 2013,they were the second placed in national mushtaq ali 20 overs competition,they were the south zone champions 2 times in 20 over format and 1 time in 50 0ver format recently.all with the presence of sanju samson.Please know the reality before putting comments
    POSTED BY hkiran1 on | May 5, 2015, 14:19 GMT

    One of his kind. Exudes 80's West Indian way of batting with a cool head to top it up. If he doesn't play for India it is our country's loss. He needs to get more time in England, Australia or South Africa along with other talents like Aparajith, Unmukt, Sarfraz, etc.
    POSTED BY CricketMaan on | May 5, 2015, 11:23 GMT

    Sanju, Unmukt, Baba were identified early in their careers, while all 3 have found season 2 difficult after brilliant season 1, its how they develop into cricketers in the next 2-3 years will define their position. Sanju has already been put under immense pressure by media and fans as heir to MSD. I remember when a young Parthiv Patel after his heroics as 17 yr old in a Test in England was touted as the next best keeper and a long term prospect, the expectations were too much and he has quietly resigned to Ranji and IPL with India dreams very far. DK too was put under pressure and with no fixed role, he has found himself outside Indian team. Saha with his keeping skills has got an entry into Tests, but who will succeed MSD in ODIs and T20 will continue to be a mystery. I want Sanju to score tons in Ranji and match winning knocks in IPL before he plays for India. Dont rush him
    POSTED BY JayanDamodaran on | May 5, 2015, 10:14 GMT

    No doubt about his talent. But there are many youngsters budding up, some even younger than Sanju! But as a fan, I sincerely hope he gets a bit more luck so that he can produce a stream of 50+ scores in the IPL. If he gets to do that, I am sure he'll go places. Simply because he has that stamp of authority behind his strokes. When in form he is clean and aesthetic in shot making. No other youngster has that authority. Good luck again Sanju!
    POSTED BY jimbond on | May 5, 2015, 8:29 GMT

    The way I see it, this guy is currently stuck. If he needs to improve he needs to get consistent runs in at least one Ranji season. As Kerala continues to be in C group, he may not get enough motivation to perform against the best, and it may make sense to change his Ranji team- Delhi would be a good move. Again, he doesn't keep for his state team. This could prevent him becoming a potential replacement for Dhoni. Else if he gets a chance to play a few matches for India A, he should score big because IPL performances are not enough.

  10. #20

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    The tale of Samson

    http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/862383


    Only 20 and yet to make his India debut, Sanju Samson is already a poster boy for the IPL generation
    Karthik Krishnaswamy | May 2015

    It is day one of Kerala v Services at the Conor Vayal Stadium in Tellicherry. An hour and a half into the morning session, when Kerala lose their first wicket, Sanju Samson straps on his helmet, steps over the boundary rope, and turns to glance at the sky.

    Apart from the pavilion and a small office building at the opposite end, this is an open ground ringed by coconut trees. It is picturesque in a small-town way and perhaps its most distinguishing feature is its drinks trolley. Kerala's cricketing accomplishments are modest, but its cricket grounds have the most distinctive drinks trolleys in the country. Up in Wayanad, the ground staff wheel out a life-size model elephant at every drinks break. Here in Tellicherry it is a fishing boat.

    The last time I watched Sanju bat up close was in an entirely different setting. It was in April last year, when he made a 34-ball 52 for Rajasthan Royals against Kings XI Punjab in the IPL. He caressed the third ball he faced to the cover boundary and sent his sixth soaring over the tent-like roofs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The crowd, a sizeable chunk of which represented the region's expat Malayali population, went mad.

    Here in Tellicherry there is no crowd to speak of. I am the only journalist in the makeshift press enclosure in the upper deck of the pavilion; a couple of others will arrive later in the day.

    Kerala v Services is an unimportant match in the larger scheme of things. Both teams sit in the middle of the table in Group C, the lower tier of the Ranji Trophy, and have close to no chance of promotion. But it is an important match for Sanju, a chance to extricate himself from his first prolonged slump. Since his return in September from England, where he was part of India's ODI and T20 squads, Sanju has made over 50 in only one out of 16 innings for India A, Kerala and South Zone. The first six matches of his Ranji Trophy season have been a story of promising starts: 24, 17, 5, 22, 89, 30, 19 and 41. With two games to go, the sequence of scores could come to mean anything. Add 113 and he will average 40. Anything less than 23 and his average will dip below 30.

    Growing up playing with friends in the Police residential colony in the North Delhi neighbourhood of GTB Nagar, Sanju and his older brother Saly couldn't get away with low scores. If they were out early, their father, Viswanath Samson, who organised these tennis-ball matches, would tell them to go home.

    "The gate to our complex was some 100, 200 metres away, and Sanju would walk away slowly, stop midway, and turn," Viswanath says. "I'd say, 'Bol diya na? Ja [I told you, no? Go].' Then he would stand by the gate, this small boy, seven or eight years old, standing there, far away, looking at me."

    Viswanath chuckles at the memory, but his word was final. Sanju had to go home.

    It was a counter-intuitive move, to go from Delhi, one of Indian cricket's nerve centres, to Kerala, a state with a marginal cricketing presence

    A centre forward for the Delhi Police for 22 years, Viswanath looks every inch the retired footballer in his cargo shorts and polo-neck T-shirt. He is compactly built, with a closely trimmed moustache and the beginnings of a paunch.

    Once, when Sanju was bowled, his father demanded an explanation. "What to do, I didn't want to go home," Sanju says. "So I told my father the ball hit a hole and turned." The next day, the children of the colony formed a barricade around their patch of road, waving vehicles away from it. Viswanath had arranged to cement their pitch.

    Apart from the time he devoted to football training, Viswanath's days revolved around his sons' cricket. He would bring the children of the neighbourhood together, draw lots and make them bat until each was dismissed. He would take Saly and Sanju to the practice sessions of the Delhi Police cricket team, among whom Viswanath had a number of friends. "I would tell them to bowl to Sanju and Saly, however fast you want. They were 25-year-old bowlers, and the boys would play them comfortably, even if they bowled from 15 yards."

    Both brothers were soon playing for their school and pushing for selection in Delhi's age-group teams. Still, Viswanath felt their talent might hit a wall. "I was a small man," he says. "Big-big people play cricket in Delhi - businessmen, IAS [Indian Administrative Service], IPS [Indian Police Service], people in politics."
    With dad Viswanath Samson in the family home in Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram

    With dad Viswanath Samson in the family home in Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    So, around a year after his retirement from football, Viswanath retired from his job and decided to move back to Thiruvananthapuram, his home town. It was a counter-intuitive move, to go from Delhi, one of Indian cricket's nerve centres, to Kerala, a state with a marginal cricketing presence and a team that has long been one of the Ranji Trophy's punching bags. From their debut in 1957-58 to 2001-02, Kerala reached the second round only twice. In the last 13 seasons, when the tournament has been split into divisions, they have been in the top tier just once. Only two Kerala players, Tinu Yohannan and Sreesanth, had played for India when the Samsons moved back in 2006.

    Most batsmen in India grow up playing a see-ball-hit-ball brand of cricket on the streets, and learn to play with a straight bat when they come into contact with organised coaching. Sanju followed a slightly different trajectory.

    "In Delhi, I was more of a 'V' player," he says. "I didn't want to get out, or my father would send me home. Only after I came to Trivandrum [Thiruvananthapuram] I started playing all these shots." He demonstrates with his hands a leg-side whip - presumably from off stump - and a steer behind point.

    Sanju found the freedom to play those shots when he arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College ground as an 11-year-old, and came under the wing of Biju George, who had been coaching there since 2000.

    Biju is 49 but he is still slim and wiry, with no hint of grey in his hair or in his thick moustache. The only sign of all the years he has spent on the coaching circuit - among other roles, he has served as a talent scout for Kolkata Knight Riders, fielding coach for India Under-19, and head coach of the Kuwait national team - is the relative size of his forearms. He lines them up against each other and you realise the right forearm is significantly bigger.

    "Throwdowns," he says.

    Right from the start, Biju made Sanju bat against the best bowlers in the academy, including those who had already played for Kerala.

    "If you're good enough," Biju says, "you're old enough."

    What impressed Biju the most was Sanju's willingness to try anything to improve his game.

    "Before the Champions League [in 2013], he had to play Mumbai Indians and Mitchell Johnson," says Biju. "So he was thinking, 'What to do, how to get that sort of speed?' Obviously nobody here will be that quick. We had the concrete [pitch], we put a coir matting on top of it, stretched it out, and poured water. Then we put these flex-board sheets, plastic sheets, on top of that. And guys were bowling from 18 yards with the hard synthetic ball.

    "It was flying. He was getting hit, then he was playing. When he went there, he could handle Mitchell Johnson with absolute ease. So you try anything with him, he is ready. Not like, 'Sir, I'll get hit, IPL is coming up.'"

    In the pre-IPL days, Sanju may have taken longer to acquire his new house and SUV. Or find a place next to Tendulkar and Ronaldo in a row of posters outside a sports shop

    Raiphi Gomez has a mediocre first-class record as a seam-bowling allrounder but he has always had the potential to play outlandishly explosive innings. In 2010 he smashed an unbeaten 88 off 29 balls for Kerala in a 50-over match against Hyderabad. He hit five sixes and a four in the final over of the innings.

    Among the senior players who took him under their wing when he first arrived at Biju's academy, Sanju is closest to Gomez. He even began supporting Barcelona because Gomez is a fan.

    "Before each and every match I call him, discuss the conditions, how I can prepare," Sanju says. "He really knows my character very clearly, he knows my game really clearly, he is like my big brother."

    Sanju picks out a six he hit against Knight Riders' left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla in 2013. "Raiphi bhai said Kolkata has a pretty slow wicket, so if you can wait for him [Abdulla] and aim over midwicket, you can hit him," Sanju says. "So I hit a six there."

    Watch the shot now. On air, Harsha Bhogle's first reaction is a chuckle that gives way to a fully articulated "Ha ha!" Then he picks up the key quality of the shot. "He just sat on the back foot, waited for the ball, and waited and waited... he's deposited it waaaay over midwicket."
    Samson's wicketkeeping has largely been restricted to limited-overs games

    Samson's wicketkeeping has largely been restricted to limited-overs games © BCCI

    Sanju struck 22 sixes in 23 IPL innings - before the start of this edition - and while that is a pretty good rate of six-hitting, it is the quality of his shots that makes you sit up. There is a video containing all 17 he hit in the 2014 season, and it makes for an exhilarating watch. Here is Sanju, 19, flat-batting L Balaji over long-off and launching Murali Kartik inside-out over extra cover. Ben Hilfenhaus bowls a slower ball and Sanju clears his front leg a fraction and smacks him over wide long-on. Dale Steyn comes steaming in and Sanju simply extends his arms through a straight drive, left elbow high, and lifts the ball back over his head. It travels 81 metres.

    Apart from the shot against Kartik, where he has skated smoothly away from his stumps to create room, Sanju has made no premeditated movements. Always his head is still. A chest-high short ball from Siddarth Kaul ends up in the stands behind long-off, and the broadcaster cuts to a square-on replay. From that angle, you get the best view of Sanju's backlift, with his arms in a classical diamond shape, his wrists cocked, his head still, and his weight evenly distributed but ready to shift onto the front foot.

    It is an utterly orthodox position, and he ends up playing a shot that can only be described as a down-the-line topspin forehand. It is a ridiculous shot, and he has made it look simple - a quality that has excited seasoned watchers of the game. Writing on ESPNcricinfo after the 2013 IPL season, Bhogle picked Sanju as one of his three players for the future. A year later, in an article for starsports.com, he wrote about the first shot he saw Sanju play, a cover drive in his first IPL season in 2013, and compared the effect it had on him to shots he watched Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly play before their India debuts.

    "There was also this calmness to him. You could see he wasn't the kind of kid who would get too excited if he did well or too disappointed if he failed" Rahul Dravid

    That cover drive came in a run chase against Pune Warriors in Sanju's fourth IPL match. He had walked in with Royals needing 29 from 17. The shot came off the first ball he faced, off the back foot, off Wayne Parnell. He got on top of the bounce off a fairly decent delivery - fourth stump, back of a length - and hit it between mid-off and extra cover. Sanju made 10 off six. Royals won with a ball to spare.

    In Tellicherry, against Services, Sanju cannot be contained, and by the time he has got to double figures he has already hit two fours, a whip wide of mid-on, against an off-stump ball, and a square drive. At lunch he is 32 not out. To the second ball after resumption he jumps out of his crease to hit left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar over the top. He doesn't quite reach the pitch and skews the ball high, but the cover fielder can't latch on.

    If the catch had been taken, it would have been another wasted start. Reprieved, Sanju cashes in. He brings up his half-century with an inside-out six off Kumar. The fielders scatter but he keeps finding the boundary. The post-tea session begins with only a wide slip within conversational range of the wicketkeeper, and he finds the gap between them with an impudent late dab. Sanju brings up his fifth first-class century with a slightly miscued boundary over mid-on and releases his pent-up frustration with a punch and a roar.

    "I think I scored my hundred after one and a half years," he later says. "So I came to realise how true people are to me. I came to realise who all are my good friends, and how I should be living my life, and what all I should be doing outside my cricket which will affect my game inside.

    "If you score runs, everyone says whatever I do is the best thing, and when I don't do well, they say things like, 'You are not focused enough, you are not giving enough time as you did before.' Now I know that it is all within myself."
    Kerala idol: that Sanju Samson is the state's next big cricketing hope is evident from his popularity among fans not many years younger than him

    Kerala idol: that Sanju Samson is the state's next big cricketing hope is evident from his popularity among fans not many years younger than him © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    On the second morning Sanju scores 40 of Kerala's first 50 runs, and soon brings up his double-hundred, off 254 balls. Still 20, Sanju is the only Kerala batsman to make two first-class double-centuries. He also has five hundreds; two more will bring him level with the Kerala record.

    Sanju's first-class average of 44.70 isn't flash when compared to Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane or Rohit Sharma, who all average 60-plus in domestic first-class games. But here is some context: 16 batsmen have scored more runs for Kerala than Sanju; not one of them has an average over 40.

    "I've been very lucky to play for India A and Rajasthan Royals, where I get a lot of competition," Sanju says when asked about playing against relatively weaker teams in the lower division. "In the Ranji Trophy, playing for a champion team may not bring the best out of you, but playing for a team like Kerala, where we want to get promoted, brings out the best in me."

    It is tempting to imagine where Sanju might be if not for the IPL. Especially when you see the swimming pool and the cricket nets in the backyard of his new house in Vizhinjam, a harbourside neighbourhood of Thiruvananthapuram. The architecture is of the traditional Kerala style: sloping tiled roofs and a pillared front courtyard with wicker chairs to read the newspaper in. From the outside it comes across as strangely understated - a pale blue house in a state that likes its yellows and pinks.

    "It was my father's dream for more than ten years," Sanju says. "He always used to say, 'We should have a house with cricket nets for you and Saly.'"

    Sanju is driving me from Vizhinjam to my hotel in central Thiruvananthapuram, a distance of about 14km. The drive from Vizhinjam to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College is longer, about 22km, and not too long ago, Sanju and Saly would cover this distance riding pillion on their father's motorcycle. Sometimes they would change buses to get there.

    "If you score runs, everyone says whatever I do is the best thing, and when I don't do well, they say things like, 'You are not focused enough'" Sanju Samson

    In the pre-IPL days, Sanju may have taken longer to acquire his new house and SUV. Or find a place next to Sachin Tendulkar and Cristiano Ronaldo in the row of life-size posters displayed outside a sporting goods shop opposite the Secretariat building in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram. He is a local boy, of course, but if Sanju were simply an excellent young first-class cricketer, the shop owner would have struggled to find a photograph to pin outside. In fact, until the day he completed his double-century in Tellicherry, ESPNcricinfo didn't have a single action photo of Sanju in whites. They were all of him in the blues of India A, India U-19 and Royals.

    Sanju likes wearing white, though. I chat with him on three separate occasions over two weeks and each time he wears a white t-shirt. Each seems to be designed to deflect attention away from him.

    Biju says he has never seen Sanju come to the Medical College nets in his IPL or India gear. "He is always wearing some old t-shirt, and usually chappals. He comes here, changes into his shoes and goes into the nets. When the session is over, when I am doing catching or something with the bigger boys, he is the guy who takes care of the younger kids. He does throwdowns for them."

    Last year, at the end of a day's play during another Ranji Trophy match in Tellicherry, Sanju saw a group of teenagers playing a tennis-ball match on a patch of grass outside the ground, and joined them. The Kerala team bus was ready to leave but Sanju was just getting started. It was only when the Kerala coach, Sujith Somasundar, yelled out that Sanju hopped into the team bus.

    Asked if it wasn't an unusual thing for an IPL star to do, Sanju says he would have it no other way.

    "The way people look at me has changed, yeah. They have started recognising me wherever I go. They expect more of me. I really respect that they started giving me more love based on whatever I have done in the IPL and Ranji Trophy. But I never think that I have become a hero of Kerala cricket. I have not changed in the last six or seven years. I am the same Sanju."
    Biju George wasn't afraid of exposing young Sanju to the best bowlers in his academy

    Biju George wasn't afraid of exposing young Sanju to the best bowlers in his academy © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    Biju says the desire to shun the limelight is the biggest difference between Sanju and Kerala's last big cricketing hope.

    "It has been very hard for him to adjust, because wherever he goes, people say 'Sanju, Sanju'. But now people have realised he doesn't have any hang-ups. There is a big difference between a Sreesanth and a Sanju. Kerala people are very happy seeing Sanju after what they saw with Sreesanth. Gives him almost a halo."

    Sreesanth, though, made an important contribution to Sanju's rise. In January 2013, Sanju was without an IPL franchise, after Knight Riders released him without giving him a first-team chance. Sreesanth took him for a trial at Royals.

    "Suddenly I found myself batting in front of Rahul Dravid and Paddy Upton," Sanju says. "I started playing strokes. I just expressed myself."

    After the second day of the trials, Dravid walked up to him. "He came and directly told me, 'Sanju, you have a very special talent and I would really love to make you play in my Rajasthan Royals team. Would you play for us?' He asked me like this. That question really shocked me."

    "I never think that I have become a hero of Kerala cricket. I have not changed in the last six or seven years. I am the same Sanju"

    Dravid, then Royals' captain, and now part of their management, had little doubt about Sanju's talent. "You could see immediately that he had the game, he had all the shots," Dravid says. "There was also this calmness to him. You could see he wasn't the kind of kid who would get too excited if he did well or too disappointed if he failed.

    "We made sure we gave him a lot of time at the nets, batting against guys like Shaun Tait. Coming up from junior cricket, U-19s, even Ranji Trophy, you don't face guys like Mitchell Johnson, bowling at 145-150kph. So it was just that small adjustment."

    Sanju sought out pretty much everyone in the squad, carrying a diary wherever he went to jot down gleanings. "I had a lot of questions in my diary," he says. "I asked the same question to different people. I asked the same question to [Brad] Hodge, same question to Rahul sir, same question to Shane Watson, and the same question to Ajinkya bhai.

    "In the first team meeting during the IPL, Brad Hodge said that in T20 cricket you should always look for boundaries. If you can't get boundaries then you should look for singles. If you are not able to get singles then you should get out of cricket. It is very true but very funny."

    Given the value he has added to Royals as a wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju was going to feature in discussions about MS Dhoni's long-term successor, especially after Dhoni's Test retirement late last year. Sanju keeps wicket in the IPL and in limited-overs matches for Kerala, but while he began his first-class career as a wicketkeeper, his role in the Ranji side is now mostly restricted to batting.

    Dravid suggests there is a good reason for this. "He is a very good keeper, and I'm sure he can be a regular keeper in one-day and T20 cricket. Four-day cricket, I guess you wouldn't want to lose his batting, because it can take a lot out of you, keeping for a day and a half, two days."
    This used to be my playground: Sanju Samson first came to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College grounds as an 11-year-old

    This used to be my playground: Sanju Samson first came to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College grounds as an 11-year-old © Karthik Krishnaswamy

    Sanju kept wicket in only one Ranji match this season and felt his concentration slipping. "You can say I was not fully there," he says. "I was there for 40 to 50 runs, then when I was batting on 60 or 70 I lost a bit of focus or a bit of full fitness. But if I get used to it, I think I can easily manage. Long term it depends on the team. If they want me to keep I will keep. Whatever my team demands I have to do it."

    Sanju has only recently learned to drive, but there is a calm assurance to the way his SUV glides over National Highway 47. It is like his batting against Services minus the initial spurts of over-exuberance. Signposts along the highway point down bylanes that lead to beach resorts, and I ask if he spent his childhood holidays at any of them. He shakes his head and says he was too busy playing cricket.

    On April 18, 2008, Sanju was in Kottayam, keeping wicket for Trivandrum U-16s as they moved towards an innings win over Alappuzha Under-16s. After the day's play, the Trivandrum players huddled in a hotel room and watched Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Knight Riders in the first ever IPL game. This was new, this was like nothing these boys had seen before.

    "Obviously," Sanju says, "we all wanted to play this tournament."

    Jumping out of a crease drawn in Bangalore and into a hotel room TV in Kottayam, Brendon McCullum repeatedly swatted short balls over long-off on his way to a 73-ball 158.

    It wouldn't be long before Sanju would play the same shot in the IPL, and play it his own way, with an air of stillness. He would do so before he turned 20, before he was picked for India. And he would do so in front of packed houses. It is fair to assume that some talented 13-year-old cricketer, watching at home or in a hotel room, probably growing up in a state with no real cricketing pretensions, has taken note.

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