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3 min readMar 19, 2026 02:52 PM IST
IPL 2026: Rajasthan Royals owner Manoj Badale said Sanju Samson was emotionally drained before requesting an exit from the franchise. (File)
When the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League starts from later this month, the first champions of the IPL, the Rajasthan Royals, will have a different look after losing their talismanic opener Sanju Samson to five-time champions Chennai Super Kings, and bringing back old-hand Ravindra Jadeja in the squad.
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has pointed out how Samson had become the face of the franchise.
“If I look at the IPL and the teams, 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,” du Plessis said on a JioHotstar show. “He’s of a newer generation, but he had become the face of that franchise. If I think of Rajasthan Royals, I think Sanju Samson. So, the fact that they’ve lost that face, I think, is a massive thing for the fans, for the IPL, and for the tournament, because he’s played such a big role there.”
Samson also comes into the season after dragging the Indian team to the T20 World Cup title with three game-winning knocks in the Super 8 clash with West Indies, the semis against England and the final against New Zealand.
Du Plessis also pointed out that Samson’s departure will mean that opener Yashasvi Jaiswal would have a bigger responsibility to shoulder from this coming season.
“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.’ 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 said.
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