England's former cricketer Graeme Swann compared Sanju Samson with MS Dhoni - one of the greatest captains of India.
Swann, who is appearing as an analyst during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season 16, was highly impressed by Samson's captaincy skills for Rajasthan Royals this year.
"What I love about Sanju is, like I said, in the five or six years that I have been covering the IPL, he has become more and more of a leader and a consistent senior player that his talent beckoned and destined him to be," he said.
"Let's face it: four or five years ago, everyone knew how good he was, but he would easily go six to seven games doing nothing and then have a brilliant knock. I think now he's almost Mr. Dependable for Rajasthan. And he's very calm; he's very assured; he is like a young MS Dhoni; I think with his captaincy. He doesn't lose his calm, he doesn't lose his cool, and he knows what is going on and reads the game well," he added.
So far in 11 matches in this year's IPL, Samson has scored 308 runs including 66 not out at a strike rate of 154.77. He has led his team from the front and kept them in the race for playoffs qualification.
- Ms Dhoni