Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) newest acquisition, Sanju Samson, had a poor start to his IPL 2026 tournament. After being traded from the Rajasthan Royals, Samson started slowly and then came a brilliant century. He then lulled a bit and came back with another century.
So far, Samson has done very well, if we see the numbers. He has 402 runs in 10 games, at a strike rate of 167.50, with two centuries and one fifty to his name, with the best score being 115*.
When he had joined the CSK franchise, several pundits and experts had wondered if he would take over the captaincy from Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Even though the status quo has been upheld, Gaikwad's performance falls short, and the chorus keeps expanding to give Samson more control. Samson just won Player of the Tournament for India in the T20 World Cup and has been outstanding as RR captain.
Sanju has made an immediate impression at his new home because CSK has won every game in which he has struck gold with the bat.
Samson finally explained why he didn't request captaincy when he moved from the Royals to CSK ahead of the team's upcoming match against the Lucknow Super Giants at the Chepauk.
"No." (Whether the thought of becoming the CSK captain entered his head). I already had a team. I already had a place. I wanted to come out of there and join another team. So in that transaction, you can't actually have demands. Honestly, you are trying to get into a new home. When you're trying to get into a new home, you don't go there with demands, which is what I have learned to be very honest," Samson told Abhinav Mukund in the latest episode of the Super Kings podcast.
“You go there, and you try to prove your worth. You try to behave the way you are and perform at your maximum, and from there you take on challenges. And then there is something else, too. A lot of Malayalis work in Chennai. A lot of Malayalis work in Dubai. The reason you are picking Malayalis is that they will give their life to repay the trust. CSK has trusted me and invited me here. I am ready to give my everything here,” he added.
Samson supported his captain, Gaikwad, highlighting all of the CSK captain's positive traits. He also talked about how the batter from Maharashtra contacted him and persuaded him to go from the Royals to CSK.
“Rutu is honestly a very nice, a very different kind of an Indian cricketing superstar. He is a superstar. He is leading one of the biggest franchises. But he doesn't behave like a normal superstar. He may not sound or behave like a confident guy, but I feel he is the most assured and confident cricketer in the Indian cricket circle. Any other person at his level, he just captained a franchise for one year,” said Samson.
“I have done it for another team for five years. So, he suddenly invited me to play on his team. He has immense confidence in himself as a cricketer and as a person to take actions like this. So these types of actions do attract me. Nowadays, people talk a lot, like, "I will do this, I will do that," but more than talk, actions count much more," he added.
CSK are currently in sixth place in the IPL 2026 points table, and if they defeat LSG in their next game, they would move to the fifth spot.
