Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody has raised questions over Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson‘s captaincy during their defeat to Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2024. RR suffered their first loss of IPL 2024 on Wednesday after four wins on the bounce. Moody questioned Samson’s decision to underutilise pacer Trent Boult with the ball. For the unversed, Boult bowled two overs and conceded eight runs in his first spell. However, Samson decided against completing his full quota of overs, bowling veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin at the death.

The former SRH coach Moody feels Samson’s decision of underutilising Boult doesn’t make any sense.

“You had to use Trent Boult at the back end. He’s certainly been used at the death before, and he’s got huge amount of experience. So when it comes to pressure, he’s used to absorbing that pressure and taking on those challenges. So i was really surprised that he wasn’t spent today. He left the park with two overs left in the bank, which doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Nothing against Ashwin, he is a very fine bowler. But he and Chahal went for 83 runs in their eight overs combined. To me, it was a real miss with Trent Boult. Unless there’s an injury or illness that we are not aware of,” Moody said on ESPNcricinfo.

During the same discussion, former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta also questioned Samson decision to use Ashwin over Boult in the 17th overs.

I can understand Ashwin bowling the 15th over, but the 17th? If you look at the bowling unit, Boult is the most experienced fast bowler there. Irrespective of whether it’s his strength or not you’re still going to bowl him at back-end. If he’s got over left, you’ve got to bowl him,” Deep Dasgupta questions Samson’s decision.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, former India opener Aakash Chopra also echoed the same sentiments as Moody and Dasgupta, saying that Boult should’ve been utilised in the middle overs.

“If you are bowling with a dry ball, then if you have scored enough runs, you should have the bowling to defend it. The truth is that Rajasthan have the bowling. They didn’t play Nandre Burger but despite that, they have the bowling. Keshav Maharaj made his debut and they got him to bowl only two overs,” Chopra said in his YouTube channel.

“Why did Trent Boult bowl only two overs? I didn’t understand that. Two overs, eight runs, and he bowled only two overs. Why? Keshav gave 16 runs in his two overs, so totally only 24 runs went in those four overs. Trent Boult could have been given overs in the middle but you didn’t do that. You went towards spinners,” he added.

Despite the defeat, RR sit top of the table after five games. They will now take on Punjab Kings on Saturday.