Star Indian wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who was traded from Rajasthan Royals to Chennai Super Kings on Saturday, November 15, is not going to be the captain of the Chennai-based team in the 2026 season of the lucrative Indian Premier League. The five-time champions took to social media on Saturday night after the player retentions were made public to declare 28-year-old Indian batter Ruturaj Gaikwad as the new team captain for next season.
Gaikwad, who was selected in the 2020 mega auction by CSK and has already made an impressive score of 2502 runs in 71 matches, gets the CSK captaincy again ahead of IPL 2024 after being appointed as such. However, he did not manage to take the team to the playoffs during his initial season. He participated in the first five matches of the season in 2025, but then he was declared unfit for the rest of the tournament after sustaining an injury in a match against Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati.
During the nine matches that MS Dhoni was in charge, they lost all and thus, CSK had to face the disgrace of being at the bottom of the points table at the end of the season, which was the first time in IPL history.
When CSK traded Samson right before the IPL 2026 retention deadline, it was assumed that he would not only lead the team but take over the captaincy as well. However, through a social media post that read, “Lead the way, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad,” CSK cleared all the doubts.
Samson has been the captain of Rajasthan Royals for 65 IPL matches so far and has won only 32 times. He is the most successful captain of the Jaipur-based franchise in IPL history.
Jadeja to captain RR?
Ravindra Jadeja, the senior Indian all-rounder, who was traded to Rajasthan Royals along with Sam Curran in the Samson deal, is expected to be the leader in the IPL 2026 for the opening edition winners. The franchise has not yet made the new captain of RR public but according to Reports the 36-year-old, who was part of IPL for RR in 2008 and 2009, will be given the leadership role.
In terms of IPL history, Jadeja has been the bowler with the most wickets for CSK, 143 in total out of 186 matches while having an average of 28.32 and the best of 5/16. He has also recorded the highest runs for the team in IPL history, 2,198 runs with an average of 28.54 and over 136 strike rate, including five fifties. He was the second player behind captain Ruturaj Gaikwad to be retained for Rs 18 crore ahead of the 2025 mega-auction. The all-rounder is now amongst five players to have played 254 IPL matches which is also the fifth position in tournament history.
Jadeja has taken command of CSK for eight matches under IPL 2022 but was able to snatch only two victories.
Should Jadeja not be considered for captaincy, then Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, or Dhruv Jurel may succeed Samson.