Sanju Samson ruled out of clash against RCB, to not travel to Bengaluru

Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson has been ruled out of their upcoming clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The two teams are scheduled to face each other in the 42nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday (April 24).

However, according to a report in ESPNCricinfo, Samson will not travel with the team to Bengaluru. Instead, he will remain at the team's home base in Jaipur with the select medical staff and continue recovering from injury. For the unversed, the Royals' skipper injured himself while batting in the game against the Delhi Capitals. He returned to the dugout, retired hurt, and also missed the previous game against Lucknow Super Giants.

"Samson is currently undergoing recovery and will remain at the team's home base (Jaipur) with select RR medical staff. As part of his ongoing rehab process, he will not be travelling to Bangalore for the upcoming match against RCB. The team management is monitoring his progress closely and will take a game-by-game approach



regarding his return to action," RR said in a statement.

RR lost both matches from winning positions as they were not able to score nine runs in the final over. The match against the Capitals ended in a tie and Delhi won in the super over while Avesh Khan of LSG defended nine runs to help his team win by two runs.

In Samson's absence, 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi made his IPL debut in the previous game and had a field day with the bat. He smacked his first ball in the cash-rich league for a six, becoming the 10th player in history to do so, and looked impressive with his power-hitting. Overall, Vaibhav scored 34 runs off just 20 deliveries before getting out to Aiden Markram.

The southpaw will get another opportunity with Samson not playing against RCB and will be keen on playing a big knock. Meanwhile, the Royals are already in a must-win position, having win only two out of eight matches so far. They are languishing at the eighth position in the points table and will have to win all remaining six games to make it to the playoffs.