A serious controversy erupted in the beginning of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match between Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals after Sam Curran got here out for the toss, representing the house facet, since major captain Shikhar Dhawan had picked up a niggle. Seeing Curran alongside RR skipper Sanju Samson, nevertheless, was shocking to many because the franchise had earlier recommended that Jitesh Sharma was their vice-captain, by sending him for the pre-season captains’ photoshoot. Seeing Curran lead the facet towards Rajasthan, therefore, upset many followers, with PBKS dealing with warmth on social media.

As anger grew on social media, Punjab Kings coach Sanjay Bangar issued a clarification, suggesting Jitesh wasn’t their ‘designated vice-captain’. His presence within the captains’ photoshoot was solely attributable to Sam Curran’s late arrival from the United Kingdom, he recommended.

“Jitesh wasn’t the designated vice-captain. The impression could have been because he attended the captain’s seminar or meeting at the start of the tournament. But the thought was always that since Sam had led the team last year as well, he was late to arrive from the UK and wanted to have a few sessions, which is why we couldn’t send him to Chennai for the inauguration of the season. Hence, Jitesh was sent because the directive from an IPL member was that a player must attend, but it was never in mind that he would be the vice-captain. But we were very clear in our minds that of at all there would be an opening it would be Sam to lead the team,” Bangar mentioned.

In a photoshoot – it was talked about Jitesh Sharma as vice captain!

Two potentialities right here –

Sam Curran – precise vc was not obtainable for photoshoot – so stand-in vc was despatched for a similar

2 – Looking at present type – Sam has changed Jitesh as vice captain#TATAIPL#PBKSvRR pic.twitter.com/eNs8ABBptt

— Nilesh G (@oye_nilesh) April 13, 2024

The match towards Rajasthan turned out to be a nail-biter, with the Samson-led franchise sealing a win late within the match. It was on the penultimate ball of the match that Shimron Hetmyer hit a six to seal 2 factors for his facet.

After the sport, stand-in skipper Curran admitted that the win was laborious to take.

“The wicket was slightly slow, but we didn’t start well with the bat and didn’t finish well in the end. It was a good effort from the lower order, getting (close) to 150 was excellent, the bowling was good, we kept them down, unfortunately another close loss. We stuck to our plans, bowled and fielded well, but I’m confident we’ll bounce back in the next game.

“Three video games is a tough strategy to totally work out the situations (on the new venue), however we have tailored effectively, we gained the primary match and misplaced two matches by shut margins (by 2 runs and three wickets), laborious to take, however the boys will probably be lifted by how effectively we have performed within the final couple of video games,” he said.