Royals have enough options to play around, says Samson

A formidable squad at his disposal, Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson is hoping to end his team's 13-year-long title drought in IPL 2022.

IPL 2008 champions Rajasthan Royals have built a formidable outfit this season with some big players like Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal, besides Samson himself, in their ranks.

And Samson said gelling together quickly as a unit will be key to achieving their goal.

"Our main focus is to get together as soon as possible. We have a different squad this time, some new members in the team, so it is important to come together and understand your teammates," Samson said on Monday, on the eve of Royals' opening match Sunrisers Hyderabad in Pune on Tuesday.

"We definitely had a lot of learning from the last 2-3 seasons. We discussed and worked on a few options and we got a really very good team in the auction," he added.

Sanju said the Royals have variety in their team this season, which is vital in a long tournament like IPL.

"We have a lot of Indian and international strength in our team. It's a very long tournament. We need to understand the mindset and the fitness and form of all players. But we have enough options to play around," he said.

"I think this format has to be played with lot of fearless mindset and that sort of characters are there in this team this year. So we would just like to go out there and express ourselves."

Lasith Malinga has recently joint Rajasthan Royals as the bowling coach and Samson said the Sri Lankan pace legend is adding a lot of value and making his job easier.

"It's great that people like Lasith and Kumar Sangakkara (head coach) whom we have grown up watching and whom almost every cricketer admire for whatever they had done on the field. They are now just trying to help youngsters like us to understand their game better," he said.

"Whatever chats we had with Lasith, he makes bowling look very simple and easy and that it gives a lot of clarity for every bowler in the side. He definitely is making a lot of things easier for me as a captain."

• IPL 2022