“Shane, can you please bowl me a couple of balls”: Sanju Samson reminisces requesting Shane Warne to bowl to him in Rajasthan Royals nets

Gurpreet Singh | 03/05/2022
"Shane, can you please bowl me a couple of balls": Sanju Samson reminisces requesting Shane Warne to bowl to him in Rajasthan Royals nets

Sanju Samson reminisces requesting Shane Warne to bowl at him while the latter returned back to the RR camp in the capacity of a mentor.

In the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) back in the year 2008, legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne, led a team comprising a young group of players to lift, what remains the Rajasthan Royals’ only title in the marquee league’s 14 complete years of existence.

With the legend still continuing to contribute to his dearest sport in the capacity of a presenter and a coach despite his retirement, the Cricketing fraternity pinched itself to a shocker of a news pertaining his sudden demise due to a suspected heart attack last month.

With the marquee league now into its 15th season, present RR skipper Sanju Samson, who has been with the franchise since the year 2018, shared his memorable and invaluable experience when the late ‘King of Spin’ bowled to him in the nets.

Sanju Samson reminisces requesting Shane Warne to bowl at him

During an interaction with renowned Cricket presenter Gaurav Kapur in his chat show ‘Breakfast with Champions’, Sanju Samson revealed how his dream to bat against Shane Warne got fulfilled, when the latter marked his return back with his former IPL franchise in the capacity of a mentor during the 2020 edition of the league.

The 27-year-old exclaimed how he had requested late Shane Warne, to bowl to him at the RR nets, and how he did not bat an eyelid to accept his request in an instant.

“My dream was to face Shane Warne, but when he retired, I thought now I won’t be able to play against him. But he returned as a mentor of the Royals team. Then I said to him, ‘Shane can you bowl me a couple of balls, and then he replied, ‘why not mate’. He had a different swag at that age as well. We all at the Royals have memories with him. If he was sitting among the whole team and support staff, everyone can feel Shane Warne is sitting there, that’s the kind of energy he had,” exclaimed Samson.

Unbelievably surprised by the ‘rip’ he still offered to the ball at the age of 50, Samson further exclaimed, “He’s built different man. His rhythm, the way he runs up and releases the ball. He was different. He had that swag; he was really unbelievable.”

Post Edited By: Gurpreet Singh
Indian Premier League IPL IPL 2022 rajasthan royals RR Sanju Samson Shane Warne

About the author

Gurpreet Singh

Gurpreet Singh is a Cricket writer at The Sportsrush. His platonic relationship with sports had always been there since childhood, but Cricket managed to strike a special, intimate nerve of his heart. Although his initial dream of playing the sport at the highest level couldn't come to fruition, Gurpreet did represent the state of Jharkhand at the under-14 level. However, almost like taking a pledge to never let the undying passion for Cricket fade away even a tad, he made sure to continue the love relationship by assigning the field of journalism as an indirect Cupid. He thus, first finished his bachelor's in journalism and then pursued the PG Diploma course in English journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). Soon after and since 2019, he has been working at The Sportsrush. Apart from sports, he takes keen interest in politics, and in understanding women and gender-related issues.

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