A major controversy erupted at the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match between Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals after Sam Curran came out for the toss, representing the home side, since primary captain Shikhar Dhawan had picked up a niggle. Seeing Curran alongside RR skipper Sanju Samson, however, was surprising to many as the franchise had earlier suggested that Jitesh Sharma was their vice-captain, by sending him for the pre-season captains’ photoshoot. Seeing Curran lead the side against Rajasthan, hence, upset many fans, with PBKS facing heat 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 in the captains’ photoshoot was only due to Sam Curran’s late arrival from the United Kingdom, he suggested.

“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 said.

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

Two possibilities here –

Sam Curran – actual vc was not available for photoshoot – so stand-in vc was sent for the same

2 – Looking at current form – Sam has replaced Jitesh as vice captain#TATAIPL#PBKSvRR pic.twitter.com/eNs8ABBptt

— Nilesh G (@oye_nilesh) April 13, 2024

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

After the game, stand-in skipper Curran admitted that the win was hard 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 games is a hard way to fully work out the conditions (at the new venue), but we’ve adapted well, we won the first match and lost two matches by close margins (by 2 runs and 3 wickets), hard to take, but the boys will be lifted by how well we’ve played in the last couple of games,” he said.