Sanju Samson remains a fan favourite in UAE but needs runs to convert support into long stint in the team

Home to nearly a million people from Kerala, the UAE has made Sanju feel like a local boy in every game, be it in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Thousands flock to watch him, every moment of his is soaked and celebrated. The DJ in Abu Dhabi, where Sanju cracked a half-century and won the man of the match award against Oman, revved up the mood with jazzy Malayalam chartbusters, the Illuminati song from the movie Aavesham being the favourite.

Large banners with words like “Chettam polia” (Brother is terrific, roughly translated) or Mone Kalaku (Son, have a blast!) are ubiquitous. The video of a three-year-old shrieking his name from the stands has gone viral. At every Kerala restaurant, there is a buzz about Sanju. Some of them tried to invite him for a meal through his manager but without success.

“You post a short video of him having a meal or even a cup of tea from any hotel on Insta, it would become viral,” says Najeeb, of Theepori restaurant in Sharjah. Last year, the cricketer was the face of a blood donation camp as well.

The 10-odd fan associations in the country have been frantically trying to contact Sanju, so that they could just take a photograph of him, or even take him out for a meal. Ravi George, a member of the Gulf Fans Association of Sanju Samson, says: “He will be quite busy now. Maybe, once the tournament is over, we can go to the team hotel and take a picture with him. It’s difficult to enter the training premises but some of my friends managed autographs. If he talks, we will invite him for lunch or breakfast.”

The local Malayali associations – there are more than two dozen in the country – too want to give him a reception or organise a meet-and-greet evening. Says Ravi: “I am sure most of them have reached out to him. He was supposed to come for an event in May here, but could not. This time, I would not miss him. I bought tickets for all the games in Dubai, but my son got a fever and I couldn’t attend any. Hopefully, I will watch the Bangladesh game. Hopefully, he gets a big one.”

The fans want runs. Sanju wants runs too. The Abu Dhabi knock, 56 off 41 balls at No.3, won him the man of the match award. But he was scratchy, struggling to time the ball, rotate strike and impart power into the strokes. The older the ball got the more difficult he found the going. Often, he was early into his shots. He toe-ended quite a lot of deliveries. It was not the Sanju fans were accustomed to watching in the IPL.

Off the pace

The struggle against the old ball continued against Pakistan. He came to bat at an ideal time to exhibit his finishing chops. India required 49 off 46 balls. He could cruise at a run-a-ball and wrap up the game. The start was steady, a pair of singles from crisp drives and punches, a gorgeous double from a punch off the back-foot, arguably his best stroke of the day, and a drive on the rise off medium pacer Faheem Ashraf. The crowd was in raptures, and the DJ played Malayalam rap songs on a loop. And then his struggles began.

Whenever Ashraf bowled the off-cutter, Sanju failed to judge the pace of the ball. He thick-edged a drive into his pads, toe-ended the next one and mis-hit a cut off the last ball. He shrugged his head in dejection. Off the next eight balls, he managed only five runs, three of them streakily, before Haris Rauf beat him with pace, bounce and inward movement, Sanju playing an ill-advised pull off a hard-length ball.

Sanju Samson in action against Pakistan during Super 4 match. (Photo: AP)

He is more used to the new ball, more fielders in the ring and the ball coming quicker onto his bat. But the return of Shubman Gill meant that his existence in the team relies on how well he acquaints with the new role of batting down the order. The team management has faith in him.

“We are taking good care of him, don’t worry,” Surya said before the UAE game. Sanju himself vouched for support from within the team. “I have to give a lot of credit to our team leaders Surya and Gauti (head coach Gautam Gambhir) bhai for how they are keeping the environment,” he told bcci.tv.

“It’s a very chilled environment. It’s a very equal environment. Everyone is treated very equally and everyone is given equal importance in the side. That really brings the best out of yourself and that’s what is required in this format. To be very free and responsible, the way you give freedom to the team, the teammate,” he added.

In the last few years, Sanju has worked extensively on his power game, and polished his game against spin bowlers, the stock-in-trade in the middle phase. He hits more sixes, flexes his biceps more often too. There is an overwhelming belief that he could crack the middle-overs code. Perhaps, it takes just an innings.

But patience would run out, even more so with Jitesh Sharma, more used to middle-order chores and in exemplary form, snapping at his heels.

The fans’ love, though, is unconditional. “We love him whether he gets out for a duck or a hundred, but obviously we pray that he scores a match-winning knock every game. We will be there in the stands for all his games. We would be his 12th man,” Ravi says.

In this phase of his career, Sanju requires every drop of support to cut his teeth in the middle order. It would warm the “local” hearts too.