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]Why Rajasthan Royals Let Go of Sanju Samson and Targeted Jadeja & Curran for IPL 2026
by K D Mishra
Rajasthan Royals' Director of Strategy & Analytics Giles Lindsay finally spilled the beans on Sanju Samson being traded to CSK for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran ahead of IPL 2026. After several years with the franchise and having already led the team in more than a couple of seasons, the Kerala keeper-batter believed that his time had come to seek fresher pastures, getting traded to the five-time champions for a sum of Rs 18 crore. RR looked unbothered by letting go of Samson, as the trade reportedly has allowed the side to turn attention to other problems that need their attention.
In an interview with Cricbuzz, Lindsay explained that RR lost many close games last season, and one of the main reasons was over-dependency on overseas bowling. The RR official said there was the need to strike a better balance, adding that Jadeja added to the team's batting depth, apart from being a gun fielder.
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“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 also backed the young Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel to fill in the shoes left empty by Samson. In the absence of Kerala star, the then 13-year-old shrugged off all the pressure as RR's opener in many innings and lived up to the expectations. He has been set to continue doing this job in IPL 2026, while Jurel will keep the 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.
