Rajasthan Royals’ Director of Strategy & Analytics Giles Lindsay spilled the beans on the team’s decision to trade Sanju Samson to CSK for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran ahead of IPL 2026. After spending years with the franchise and leading the team in multiple seasons, the Kerala keeper-batter decided that it was time for a new challenge and was traded to the five-time champions for a sum of Rs 18 crore. RR seemed to be unbothered about letting go of Samson as the trade has reportedly allowed them to focus on other problems which need attention.
Why RR were okay with letting go of Sanju Samson
In an interview with Cricbuzz, Lindsay explained that RR had lost many close games in the previous season and that one of the main reasons was over-dependency on overseas bowling. The RR official said that there was need to strike better balance, adding that Jadeja added to the team’s batting depth, apart from being a gun-fielder.
“Jadeja fills out some more batting depth to our line-up. A gun fielder as well. So, we’ve got a lot of boxes ticked there, and the experience as well. Sam brings bowling and batting and is a great competitor, I’ve known him for a long time. So, both of them add something different to what we have with Sanju,” the RR official said.
Lindsay further backed young Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel to fill in the void created by Samson’s departure. In the absence of the Kerala star, the then 13-year-old stepped up to the occasion as RR’s opener in multiple innings and delivered on the expectations. He is set to continue as the opener in IPL 2026 while Jurel will keep wickets, just like how he did in IPL 2025.
“But we’re confident that from what we have within the squad, we can redeploy that in the form of Vaibhav or Jurel, who can cover different roles. So, I feel like that’s the kind of basis for what we did. And I think that was where we were trying to give ourselves a bit more flexibility in our squad,” the RR official added.
