Sanju Samson had to leave the field after being hit on the finger, but he returned to bat for the Chennai Super Kings, where he was dismissed for a golden duck. CSK's bowling coach has made a massive revelation on the Indian star.
Chennai Super Kings were knocked out of IPL 2026 after they suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Gujarat Titans in their final league match appearance. Having suffered a humiliating victory, the batters were blamed to some extent as they collapsed under piling pressure.
CSK's management could not land all of their decisions on the money in this season of the IPL; however, they had some positives to carry forward by the end of the season. Having finished with six wins, CSK ended well after that sluggish start to their campaign.
Eric Simons defends Sanju Samson's dismissal against GT, salutes playing with 'sore fingers.'
The Chennai Super Kings reached Ahmedabad, the home ground of the Gujarat Titans, to add some more fuel to the fire of their qualification chances into the IPL 2026 playoffs. However, the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side crashed out of the tournament with a massive defeat.
While chasing a massive 230-run target, Sanju Samson, the Indian opening batter, was dismissed on the very first ball. His dismissal ended almost 50% of CSK's win to finish that mammoth chase. However, it is to be noted that Samson had to take off the field after having suffered an injury to his fingers early in the first innings.
Eric Simons, the CSK bowling coach, also excused Sanju Samson, citing the same reason; however, he did not claim that Samson would also be making such excuses for his dismissal.
He said, "It's never nice to be hit in the finger like that, to take a knock so early in the game. But I know that he's not going to say that's the reason I got out. It's just one of those things, and cricketers learn to live with them, and in particular, keepers do. They need to and have learned to play with sore fingers."
A glimpse of Sanju Samson's roller-coaster debut season for CSK
Chennai Super Kings invested a huge amount of money and put a fine lot of experience at stake to bring in Sanju Samson through a pre-season trade with the Rajasthan Royals. However, they did not know that Samson would go on to emerge as the architect behind India's World Cup glory in 2026.
Coming out of the World Cup as a hero, Sanju Samson started off for the Super Kings with a string of low scores in the first few games before breaking the shackles against the Delhi Capitals. He scored his first hundred for the Super Kings.
Sanju Samson's game continued to impress all through that middle phase, and he returned with several promising scores of 101*, 48, and 87*. However, his form dipped in the final four matches for the Super Kings.
Though he was off to a flying start, he could not go on to convert it into something massive. By the end of the season, he had 477 runs across 14 innings, while averaging 43.36 and striking with a strike rate of 165. From an outer perspective, the stats look impressive, but the majority of these runs were scored in just four innings, while his performance took a major dip on 10 other occasions.
Will a poor IPL 2026 finish end Ruturaj Gaikwad's reign as captain of CSK?
CSK's start to the season was poor, but their end to the campaign was particularly humiliating. After having dominated many big teams during that middle phase of the season, they lost their last three matches to LSG, SRH, and GT.
In not only the losses but also the victories, Ruturaj Gaikwad, the skipper, did not have much of a role to play. It was either the bowlers or the batters, or both, winning it for the Men in Yellow, and Gaikwad was one of them. Nothing could differentiate him as the leader of the pack.
Hence, following such a disastrous end to their campaign, CSK might think twice before handing the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of the next season of the IPL.
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