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EXCLUSIVE | Hope Sanju Samson Gets To Lead India At Some Point: Shimron Hetmyer
Follow UsIn a Cricket.com exclusive, Hetmyer spoke about what makes Sanju Samson’s captaincy different while also showing excitement to work alongside Rahul Dravid
Sanju Samson’s stocks as a leader have risen quite dramatically over the last few years after guiding Rajasthan Royals to their first-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) final since 2008, in 2022. Ever since, the franchise has been one of the more consistent teams in the competition, reaching two playoffs and narrowly missing out on the other.
One of the key cogs in that Samson-led RR dressing room is none other than the West Indian swashbuckling finisher Shimron Hetmyer. The left-handed batter, who has both seen, and flourished under Samson’s captaincy, hoped that the wicketkeeper batter would get to captain the national team.
“I rate Sanju Samson highly as a captain. I'm hoping he gets the opportunity to be captain in India at some point because he does a really good job keeping calm and ensuring that his team and teammates are all taken care of,” Hetmyer told Cricket.com in an exclusive chat.
While Hetmyer worked closely with Sri Lankan superstar Kumar Sangakkara over the past two years, this year, he will collaborate closely with the Indian stalwart Rahul Dravid. The left-hander revealed that he ‘can’t wait to get started’ to work alongside Dravid.
“I am really excited to be working with Rahul Dravid. I've heard only good things, so I can't wait to get started and actually experience them myself,” he said.
Earlier this year, Hetmyer was in the news when the Royals spent INR 11 crore to retain the services of the West Indian finisher. This triggered conversations on social media platforms about whether the left-hander was worth the buck.
So, do all these conversations and the price tag pressure add more baggage to Hetmyer?
“The first year, it did. Because then I never had that opportunity in the beginning. So it did in the beginning because there was a lot of talk about it and so on. But now, it's like that, at this point, it has died away just a little bit. And now it's mainly just the focus on the job at hand.”
RR kick-off their IPL 2025 against Sunrisers Hyderabad away from home on March 23 (Sunday).
