For eleven seasons, Sanju Samson was not just Rajasthan Royals’ best player. He was Rajasthan Royals. He debuted for them in 2013 as a teenager from Kerala, became their captain in 2021, led them to the final in 2022, and wore their pink jersey through triumph, injury, and heartbreak in equal measure. When the trade was announced in November 2025 — Samson to Chennai Super Kings for ₹18 crore, with Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran heading the other way — it was not just a transfer. It was the end of an era that had quietly defined an entire franchise.
The feeling inside the dressing room did not need much translation. Riyan Parag, who inherited the captaincy Samson left behind, said what every RR fan was already thinking. “Just like you cannot replace Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma in any XI, Samson is irreplaceable,” Parag said at RR’s pre-season press conference in Jaipur. “We can only try to look for players with the same skills and someone who can fill the hole left by him in the batting order.” He was not speaking tactically. He was speaking like someone who had spent years watching from the dressing room as Samson walked out to bat and somehow made the impossible look manageable.
Faf du Plessis, one of the sharper observers of franchise cricket, put the loss in its broadest context. “If I look at the IPL and the iconic teams we see around the league, all of them have one marquee Indian player in common — someone who has been the face of the franchise for a period of time. Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli. And Sanju Samson, for me, was that guy at Rajasthan Royals,” he said on JioHotstar. “If I think of Rajasthan Royals, I think Sanju Samson. The fact that they have lost that face is a massive thing for the fans, for the IPL, and for the tournament.”
The ripple effect reached Yashasvi Jaiswal too. Du Plessis noted that Jaiswal had always had the freedom to play his natural game precisely because Samson was consistently delivering runs at the other end. “When you have that consistency 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. For a player like him, you don’t want him thinking about responsibility — you want him thinking, I want to take the game on.” It is a subtle but significant shift in the dressing room dynamic, and one that will take time to recalibrate.
For Samson himself, the departure came from a place of quiet acceptance rather than bitterness. “I left Rajasthan Royals because I felt my time in the team was over,” he said simply. “Even if we face them now, I will play my best cricket.” He has since joined the CSK camp in Chennai, arriving to a reception that suggested the city had already adopted him. CSK’s social media post read “Chettan in Chennai” — a nod to his Kerala roots and his instant connection with the fanbase. He has spoken warmly about finally sharing a dressing room with MS Dhoni, calling it something he had long dreamed of. “Destiny has got me to come and play with him in one dressing room,” he said. “Just thinking about it makes me very happy.”
Back in Jaipur, the dressing room he left behind is quieter for his absence — but not without purpose. Parag is building something new. Jadeja has returned to the franchise where he began his IPL career. Vaibhav Suryavanshi is ready to take his next step. The pieces are different, but the ambition is the same.
On 30 March in Guwahati, Sanju Samson will walk out wearing yellow against the team that shaped him. It will be the strangest kind of homecoming — facing the franchise he gave eleven years to, in the colours of the side he always admired from a distance. Whatever happens on the field, the dressing room he left will feel his absence most.