IPL 2021: Sanju Samson rues the absence of English trio

Bengaluru, October 8: Having failed to make it to the play-off stage of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson was candid while admitting that absence of English trio -- Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer -- in the second phase of the tournament cost the team's prospects dearly.

RR ended their IPL 2021 campaign with a heavy 86-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 54 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday (October 7) night.

Put into bat, the Eoin Morgan-led KK made 171 for four before skittling out RR for a paltry 85.

With five wins and nine loses, RR finished seventh in the IPL 2021 standings, just a place above Sunrisers Hyderabad, who brought up the wooden spoon.

POINTS TABLE | RESULTS/FIXTURES

But RR's IPL 2021 campaign was severely dented by the absence of English troika who had to pull out at various stages of the tournament due to different reasons.

Losing Stokes was a big blow for the Royals. The star England all-rounder suffered an injury on his left-index finger for which he has undergone two surgies already.

Stokes is even doubtful for the Ashes starting in December.

Buttler opted out of the second leg whicg started in the UAE from September 19 due to personal reasons, while Archer was yet to recover from his injury.

"Those were the challenges (losing Stokes, Buttler and Archer)... Being the captain, I changed the way I look at my innings. I look at the conditions and the batsmen around me. Always thinking about the match situation... That got me a bit more runs," he said.

Despite the painful exit, Samson was looking at the takeaways from IPL 2021.

"(But) I am very proud of the character we showed. We were losing some easy games. We wanted to do well mindset wise. We need to play a better standard of cricket," the Kerala wicketkeeper/batsman said.

About the loss in Sharjah, Samson Samson said 172 was easily chaseable on this wicket but they failed in execution.

"171 was easy chaseable on this wicket with the batting line-up we have. We wanted to execute whatever we planned, but we didn't do it today," he signed off.