He scored 285 runs in nine matches of the IPL 2025.
Sanju Samson, the captain of Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), has been sold for a whopping price ahead of the second edition of the Kerala Cricket League. The Kochi Blue Tigers acquired the wicketkeeper-batter for a mammoth price of INR 26.8 lakhs.
Earlier, Samson was announced as the brand ambassador of the Kerala Cricket League’s inaugural edition in 2024. But he did not feature in the tournament to prioritise his international commitments.
After being axed from Kerala’s Vijay Hazare Trophy squad in December 2024, this will be the 30-year-old’s first major appearance in a tournament governed by the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA).
The six teams of the Kerala Cricket League faced an intense bidding war to acquire the keeper-batter. Initially, the player had been listed at a base price of INR 3 lakhs. But the Kochi-based franchise spent more than half of their INR 50 lakhs purse to include the star gloveman in their squad. He is currently the most expensive player in the history of this league so far.
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This comes amidst the recent speculations of him joining the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) ahead of the IPL 2026. According to multiple reports, the Royals may trade their skipper to CSK in exchange for any of the former RR players, Shivam Dube or Ravichandran Ashwin. While CSK have already expressed their interest on Samson, there is no clear statement from RR regarding whether the franchise would trade their captain or not.
CSK might want him as their opener alongside youngster Ayush Mhatre, after a dismal season of their previous opening pair, Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway. They may also look towards him as the successor of MS Dhoni in terms of leadership responsibilities for the future editions.
The 30-year-old made his IPL debut for RR in 2013. Since then, the gloveman has played in 10 seasons for the franchise so far, barring the two editions in 2016 and 2017 when he featured for the Delhi Daredevils (now defunct). However, after being retained by RR for INR 18 crores ahead of the IPL 2025, Samson missed five fixtures this season due to a few injuries.
He played some initial matches only as a batter, due to a finger injury that he suffered during the final match of the home T20I series against England. It restricted him from performing his duties behind the wicket. The opener also missed some later fixtures of the tournament after sustaining an abdominal injury midway through the IPL 2025. However, the batter scored 285 runs in the nine matches of this season, at a strike rate of 140.39.
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