Rajasthan Royals (RR) director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara has said that retaining keeper-batter Sanju Samson was a ‘no-brainer’ ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. He further called Samson Rajasthan Royals' "long-term leader".

Samson was made captain of the franchise in IPL 2021 and though the team failed to qualify for the playoffs, the franchise management decided to retain Samson for INR 14 crores as their first pick.

"We worked really hard in terms of working with our newly-formed data analytic team, with the help of all our partners in India and in the US we finally decided, of course, Sanju Samson, it was a no-brainer in terms of being our captain, number one," Sangakkara said in a video posted by RR on Twitter.

“He is going to be the long-term leader of this unit of Rajasthan Royals. He is an exceptional player and he has shown time and time again what a wonderful asset he has been for RR,” he added.

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The other players which RR retained were England’s Jos Buttler for INR 10 crs and young Yashasvi Jaiswal for INR 4 crs.

"We have retained Yashasvi Jaiswal, the young Indian opener, an absolute star in the making, he had a very very good season pre-retention, extremely talented. He is a very very quick learner, he is a hard worker and he will be our uncapped retention," Sangakkara said.

"In terms of the sole international retention we have gone with Jos Buttler. Again, phenomenal player. Everyone in the world knows what he can do, whether at the top of the order or middle order or wherever he plays. He is an exceptional match winner," Sangakkara signed off.

(PTI inputs)