Kumar Sangakkara Picture Credit: Twitter
Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara joined IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals as the Director of Cricket for the 2021 edition of the T20 tournament. Sangakkara is all set to form a working partnership with newly appointed team captain Sanju Samson. While the team won the inaugural season of the tournament, they haven't won a trophy afer that.
Meanwhile, Sangakkara has been receiving a lot of questions on social media related to the franchise. In a video uploaded by RR, a fan asked the Sri Lankan great if the Royals will sign Lionel Messi in the next year's IPL mega auction amid reports of the legendary Argentine footballer deciding against renewing his contract at Barcelona.
The RR supporter asked, "Can we sign Messi in next year’s mega auction please?" To this, Sanga responded on a humorous note, also lauding Messi for his skills suggesting that he might even play a bit of cricket too.
"Are you talking about Lionel Messi? Well, wonderful to have a player like him. I’m sure with his talent, he can definitely play some cricket as well,” Sangakkara could be seen saying in the video.
Ben Stokes, Samson play the best cover drive: Sanga
Responding to a separate fan's query regarding who plays the best Sanga (cover) drive, a shot which the southpaw perfected during his career, the 43-year-old said that there are many in the Rajasthan camp who can play that shot, also praising Virat Kohli and Shivam Dube.
"There’s quite a few, in our team itself, there’s quite a few. Ben Stokes is one, Sanju Samson can also play the drive. Virat Kohli, of course, has a beautiful balance and great transfer into his cover drive," he said.
"And hopefully, I want to see Shivam Dube play them as well. It’s one of my favourite shots. And there are so many batters in the world who play it much better than I ever did," he added.