Rajasthan Royals (RR) will be heavily dependent on Yashasvi Jaiswal to do the heavy lifting at the top of the order in IPL 2026 after Sanju Samson’s departure. The Keralam keeper-batter was an integral part of the team for years and played a major role as an opener, not only contributing with runs but also by supporting the young southpaw. Ahead of IPL 2026, former RCB captain Faf du Plessis reckons that Samson’s departure to CSK will put additional pressure on Jaiswal.
‘More responsibility’
Speaking on JioHotstar’s Game Plan – Know Your Team, du Plessis noted that Jaiswal was allowed to play his natural game while Samson was at the other end, supporting him. The ex-RCB captain noted that a learning curve was loading for the southpaw with Samson’s departure as he will be expected to handle more responsibility. Jaiswal will open with Vaibhav Suryavanshi in IPL 2026 for RR.
“The thing with Yashasvi Jaiswal is that he’s had Sanju Samson, who has been such a huge, consistent performer within that batting line-up. So, when you have that consistency of runs from Sanju, it allows you to play your game. Now, you take that away, all of a sudden, people will look at him with more responsibility. And for a player like him, you don’t want him thinking about responsibility, you want him thinking, ‘I want to take the game on. I want to hit as many sixes as possible.’,” du Plessis said.
Jaiswal has opened for RR for multiple seasons now and is arguably one of the best batters for the team. While he did not get captaincy for IPL 2026 as Riyan Parag was picked over him, the southpaw now has added responsibility of contributing in every single game with the bat in the absence of Samson.
“So there’s a learning curve that’s going to come into his career this season, ‘Am I true to the game that I’ve always played, or do I take up the senior player role to score the bulk of the runs?’ So it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. I think he’ll still play in the way that he does. It would be silly not to, because he’s such an attacking player,” du Plessis added.
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