Sanju Samson and Ravindra Jadeja: Analysing the biggest trade in IPL history

The Indian Premier League will return in late March with noise, colour and a weight of expectation.

It is a two-month festival that draws millions to screens and fills stadiums across the country. This year’s iteration ended with something unprecedented as Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bangalore finally lifted the trophy after an 18-year wait. It was a moment long overdue and felt cathartic — a breakthrough similar to Paris Saint-Germain’s long-awaited Champions League triumph in 2025.

And yet the IPL’s influence does not fade when the season ends. Once the final is done, auctions, retentions, mini-auctions and the constant movement of players draw the focus through the rest of the year. The games may stop, but the storylines do not.

In today’s plot line, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings delivered the blockbuster move the league had been anticipating. Rajasthan’s long-time captain, Sanju Samson, is heading to CSK who, in return, are bringing one of the world’s premier all-rounders, Ravindra Jadeja, back to Jaipur. A deal of this magnitude will shape the future of the franchisees, not least because they languished last season in the IPL’s bottom two positions with eight points apiece.

Here, The Athletic looks at how the deal came together, what it means for both teams, and how the catalyst was Vaibhav Suryavanshi, only 13 at the IPL auction when Rajasthan spent over 10million Indian Rupees (£86,000; $113,000) on him. It felt bold at the time, but it set in motion the biggest trade deal in IPL history.

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Who is Suryavanshi?

At just 13 and listed with a base price of 3m Indian Rupees, his pedigree was clear enough to spark a bidding war with Delhi Capitals that sent his value soaring.

Rajasthan’s plan had always been long-term. Suryavanshi was meant to develop gradually within their system, following a similar path to that of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel, now India internationals. But an injury to Samson accelerated everything.

Suryavanshi walked straight into the side to open the innings, hit the first ball of his professional career for six and, in his third game and less than five weeks after turning 14, he became the youngest batter to score a hundred in the IPL.

He managed it off just 38 balls, the fastest ever scored by an Indian in the competition.

When Samson returned, the youngster’s place at the top was secure. He stayed as opener, Samson moved to No 3 and the rest of the order shifted down. That was where the strategic tension surfaced.

Rajasthan had invested heavily in an Indian top order with Samson, Jaiswal, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel all retained long term. West Indies’ Shimron Hetmyer remained their only proven finisher. After the auction they added Nitish Rana, another domestic top-order batter, reinforcing a department that was already full.

It left them with one clear issue: they had only one established finisher and most of their batting strength sat at the top of the order.

In T20 cricket, top-order batters are built for different demands: creating platforms, exploiting the powerplay and holding an innings together. The final phase requires something else entirely. It is about instant power, constant improvisation and the confidence to attack from the moment you arrive at the crease. When Rajasthan pushed Parag, Jurel or Rana into those situations, the strain became visible.

The best T20 sides trust true finishers for the last five overs, and relying solely on Hetmyer in that role left the Royals vulnerable.

As the season unfolded, that fragility was exposed. Rajasthan lost five close chases, often looking in control before the pressure tightened. The talent was not the problem; the balance was. A top-heavy order and the rapid rise of a teenage opener created a structural issue.

Rajasthan needed to rethink how their batting would look in the next cycle.

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The Samson Dilemma

Rajasthan’s uneven season prompted changes behind the scenes.

Rahul Dravid stepped down as head coach, signalling a new direction, and talk grew that Samson was open to a move away from the franchise he had captained since 2021. The 31-year-old remains one of India’s most popular players, but even his supporters acknowledge that his international career — comprising 16 ODIs and 51 T20s — has never matched his talent.

Some believe he lacked a long enough run in the side. Others point to inconsistency.

His IPL form tells a different story. Samson has produced multiple seasons of real substance, scored at pace and led Rajasthan deep into the play-offs. Yet by the end of 2025, the rise of Suryavanshi and a shifting squad balance meant his long-term role at the top was less certain.

His IPL output across the last eight seasons with the Royals shows the consistency and impact CSK wanted so badly.

MS Dhoni remains at the centre of CSK but, at 44, the franchise knows it must plan more decisively for a future without their talisman. Their recent attempts to hand over the reins have not succeeded, with transitions twice aborted with returns to Dhoni out of necessity. In a market where Indian wicketkeeper-batters are scarce, highlighted by Rishabh Pant breaking the all-time auction record at 270m Indian Rupees, CSK needed a long-term successor.

Samson brings the presence, leadership and star pull to guide that next phase whenever the moment finally comes.

From a cricketing standpoint, the fit is immediate. CSK struggled at the top of the order last season and often found themselves rebuilding under pressure. They began a youth reset mid-season with Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis, who both impressed, but the absence of an Indian anchor remained. Samson solves that straight away. He can open or bat at No 3, brings elite wicketkeeping and offers reliability in chases.

From God’s Own Country to Lion’s Own Den! 💛
സ്വാഗതം, സഞ്ജു! #WhistlePodu #Yellove 🦁💛 pic.twitter.com/PHgbaMLk3B

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) November 15, 2025

Samson first arrived at Rajasthan in 2013. His move to CSK feels like a marketing coup similar to Anthony Davis joining the LA Lakers. Davis left a New Orleans Pelicans side built around youth, and the Royals now find themselves in a similar position, choosing to lean fully into a young core rather than hold on to a franchise centrepiece.

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Jadeja’s route home

Jadeja leaving Chennai Super Kings feels like the end of a chapter that stretched across eras.

Since joining in 2012, he has turned matches with quiet spells, lightning fielding and finishing bursts that arrived just when games seemed to be slipping away. Supporters still talk about his sprint across the ground after hitting 10 off the final two balls in the 2023 final. Moments like that explain why this farewell carries so much emotion.

Across the last three seasons he contributed consistently with bat and ball, even as his role evolved.

Through these seasons he remained Chennai’s most complete presence, contributing in every discipline and affecting games in ways not always captured by raw statistics. He then played a key part in India’s 2024 World Cup victory before calling time on his T20 international career.

There is a personal layer to his exit, too. Jadeja’s brief spell as CSK captain did not go the way he had hoped, and the role eventually returned to MS Dhoni mid-season. He slotted back into a senior role, but the desire for a fresh chapter is understandable.

His move back to the club where he began his IPL career in 2008 has echoes of Kevin Durant leaving Golden State in search of a new challenge and a chance to lead on his own terms, stepping into an environment where he carries both freedom and responsibility.

“Rajasthan Royals gave me my first platform and my first taste of victory,” Jadeja said in a Royals’ statement. “Coming back feels special — it’s not just a team for me; it’s home. Rajasthan Royals is where I won my first IPL, and I hope to win more with this current group of players.”

Now reporting for duty: 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒅𝒊 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 ⚔️💗 pic.twitter.com/jVf0AbJqwG

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) November 15, 2025

It is important to note that Sam Curran was not part of the direct Jadeja–Samson exchange. His move from CSK to the Royals was completed through a separate cash agreement negotiated alongside but recorded independently.

This is also where the IPL differs from the NBA, where trades bundle players, salaries and draft picks into a single package. The IPL has no such mechanism, yet the pairing of a player swap and a standalone cash deal gives this move the same multi-layered feel as an NBA-style blockbuster.

For Rajasthan, Jadeja fills multiple needs at once.

He strengthens their finishing in the lower middle order, brings an Indian spinner who can bowl across phases and adds the experience and clarity in pressure moments that a young core to the team has lacked. With Curran also joining, Rajasthan now have two high-quality all-rounders who can influence matches with both bat and ball, and the England international’s ability to float anywhere in the order gives them rare flexibility.

The franchise have also moved decisively in the market, trading Rana to Delhi Capitals and taking Donovan Ferreira in return, albeit in separate cash deals, to reinforce their death-over options and further stabilise the roles around their top-heavy batting core.

For Chennai, the exits of Jadeja and Curran represent the first steps in a broader shift. The franchise appears set for a substantial reshuffle, a reset designed to re-align the squad and steady the path heading into the next auction cycle.

Moves of this scale always draw comparisons with the NBA. They reshape identities and dominate off-season conversation. They also carry no guarantees. On-paper improvement is one thing, cohesion another.

Yet from a strategic and commercial point of view, both franchises win immediately. Rajasthan gain two high-impact stars who complete their balance. Chennai secure the long-term successor to the greatest figure in their history. It is a homecoming for Jadeja, a new beginning for Samson and a trade that elevates the league before a ball has even been bowled.