Samson completed a high-profile trade from RR to CSK ahead of the 2026 season.
Having finished the IPL 2025 season in the last position, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) made a dramatic change to their approach ahead of the league’s 19th edition, backing youngsters instead of relying on experienced players.
The franchise tasted success with the likes of Dewald Brevis (22), Ayush Mhatre (18) and Urvil Patel (27) towards the end of last season, and recently retained all three of them.
The five-time champions went a step further during the IPL 2026 mini-auction in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (December 16). They bought 20-year-old Prashant Veer and 19-year-old Kartik Sharma for Rs 14.2 crore each, making them joint-most expensive uncapped Indian players in the history of the auction.
After the auction, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming acknowledged that they may have been "a little bit slow" to keep pace with the evolution of the T20 format.
"As the game has evolved, we might have been a little bit slow to evolve with it," Fleming said, as quoted by Cricbuzz. "Only halfway through the [last] tournament we had a big shift and you saw with the players we got in as reserves, there was a shift in what we needed to do. Sometimes you can hang on to theories and philosophies because of past success but we identified that we needed to shift and partly the work that we did last season halfway through has enabled us to continue that work done."
The former New Zealand captain described the likes of Mhatre, Urvil, Veer and Kartik as "T20 babies", cricketers who represent a generation that has grown up with the shortest format.
"I just wonder if we're now seeing the product of T20 coming to the fore," Fleming said. "We witnessed at the start of last year, and certainly the year before that my view used to be that experience was going to win, but now you have this fearless athlete that's been brought up on T20 cricket and has a skillset that's mouthwatering, and they just have no fear about what environment they need to exhibit these skills.
"So that is one thing to acknowledge, that T20 babies are now coming through. And it's just that mental aspect. Sometimes an experienced player can get caught up in himself, trying to work out where the game's going and what's going on. But these young players these days, they're just very free and they only know one way.
"So there's real appeal, especially when the game is being played faster and faster. I think it's a byproduct of T20 being around for some time now and we're all learning, being involved with it, and the faster it gets, these young players seem to play better."
India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson is also part of the CSK squad following his trade from Rajasthan Royals, who got Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran in exchange.
Reflecting on the move, Fleming said it was driven both by a desire to bolster the top order and
Fleming said the move was driven both by a desire to strengthen the top order and by facing the reality of 44-year-old MS Dhoni’s impending swansong.
"The opportunity was there," Fleming said. "We felt we were still a little bit light in our opening batting. And we were also looking at [the fact that] at some point MS will move on.
"Sanju is an international-quality player and he fills that role very well, so succession planning. And just opportunity really, just again looking at refreshing and seeing what Chennai will look like in six years' time, not two years' time. And just making sure that there's a succession [plan] around the players we are introducing."
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)