Sanju Samson is on his way out of Rajasthan Royals (RR) and he has formally informed the franchise that he doesn’t wish to continue with them.
RR, who retained him for Rs 18 crore before the IPL 2025 mega-auction, have the power and they will decide whether to release Samson or not. Generally, franchises release a player who doesn’t want to stay with them. IPL has witnessed mega transfers involving players like Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan, Trent Boult and many others.
While Samson looks set to move on from RR, it remains to be seen if the franchise trades him or releases him before the IPL 2026 mini-auction. Riyan Parag, who joined RR before IPL 2019, captained them when Samson missed few matches in IPL 2025.
The fans must be thinking that he would be an automatic replacement for Samson, but that might not be the case. RevSportz have reported that Yashasvi Jaiswal will be a strong contender to replace Samson as RR’s captain.
A regular member of India’s Test and T20I teams since his debut, Yashasvi hasn’t done captaincy in senior cricket. He has established himself in Team India and is one of the best batsmen at present. He could also be a future India captain and becoming RR captain would bolster his chances.
Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill and many others did captaincy in IPL before becoming the India captain.
Sanju Samson’s IPL career with RR
Samson joined RR before IPL 2013. His performance over the two seasons earned him his maiden India call-up for the white-ball series against England in 2014. He made his debut in a T20I against Zimbabwe in 2015.
Samson returned to RR in the IPL 2018 mega-auction and has been with them since then. He took over the team’s charge before IPL 2021. Under him, RR played the final of IPL 2022, where they lost to debutant Gujarat Titans.
The only batsman with more than 4000 runs for RR in IPL, Samson has 4027 runs in 149 matches. He has 33 wins in 67 matches as the RR captain.