“Hoping to get him back”: Sanju Samson confident of Shimron Hetmyer returning to Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2022 soon

Shimron Hetmyer: The West Indian batter was unavailable for Rajasthan Royals’ recently concluded match against Delhi Capitals.

Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson expressed disappointment at his team’s 8-wicket loss against Delhi Capitals in Navi Mumbai last night.

Asked to bat first by DC captain Rishabh Pant, RR put on board a mediocre 160/6 in 20 overs. While teams have been able to defend such a total this season, Royals stood no chance in front of a match-winning second-wicket 144-run partnership between David Warner (52*) and Mitchell Marsh (89) at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy.

“Very disappointing night. We were few runs short and few wickets short in the middle. While we were batting, the wicket was two paced. We were 15-20 runs short. While bowling second, we dropped a few catches,” Samson told Star Sports in a post-match interview.

Will Shimron Hetmyer play vs Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday?

Apart from their mediocre batting, bowling and fielding, Rajasthan were also found wanting with respect to the DRS. It was in the third over of the innings that Samson decided against challenging the on-field umpire’s decision.

With Marsh getting beaten by a Trent Boult delivery, Samson didn’t opt for a review thinking that the ball hit the bat. However, replays had confirmed that the ball hit Marsh’s foot before hitting his bat. Furthermore, it was on its way to hit the stumps.

“I never thought it could have been pad, we thought it came off the bat. We need to come back stronger after losing any game in IPL and I hope we come back stronger,” Samson added.

Batter Shimron Hetmyer’s absence inspired Royals to promote Ravichandran Ashwin to No. 3 in the batting order. While Ashwin scored a maiden T20 half-century, RR lacked depth in the batting order especially in the business end of the innings.

Hetmyer, who has returned home due to the birth of his first child, was always expected to return for the remainder of the IPL. While Samson is hopeful of Hetmyer’s participation in the tournament, there is no clarity as to whether the left-handed batter will play their next match against Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday or not.

“Hoping to get him back soon,” Samson said about Hetmyer before concluding the interview.