Sanju Samson goes missing in the middle of IPL: Pietersen

New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson's lack of consistency has held him back, says former England batsman Kevin Pietersen who remains a big fan of his batting.

Sanju was dismissed for 21 in Thursday's match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). He had scored 4 and 1 after his 119 in the first match of the season.

"I just love Sanju Samson every single year. I'm just in absolute awe of the way he plays his shots and the time that he has to play shots. His century against the Punjab Kings was absolutely magnificent and he was very unlucky not to get his side over the line," Pietersen wrote in his blog on Betway.

Pietersen, however, said that Sanju's inconsistency has let him down.

"I talked about it a lot on commentary last year, but it's all about consistency with Samson. He has a tendency to go missing in the middle of the tournament," said the former England batting mainstay.

While he had written the blog prior to the start of Thursday's match between RR and RCB, Sanju's failure again vindicated his point on inconsistency.

"It's a marathon, not a sprint, and we don't want this to be the only innings (century vs Punjab) worth talking about for a few weeks, so we should be wary that he only scored four in Rajasthan's second match against Delhi Capitals," said Pietersen.

"His responsibilities are going to another level now that he is the Royals' captain, though, and he must also cover the hole left by Ben Stokes in that batting line-up," added the 40-year-old.

"As captain you start thinking about others as well as yourself, which can go one of two ways. You can lose your basics and go off the boil, but it can also liberate you because you're not constantly thinking about your own game."

"When you don't think too much about batting, a free spirit like Samson can go out there and just start tonking it everywhere," concluded Pietersen.