Sanju Samson has been part of the IPL since its inception. He made his first appearance in the league in 2013 when he was just a boy of 19, for Rajasthan Royals.

He got the Royals’ attention with his skillful and elegant batting, and pretty soon everybody was impressed.

He played with the Royals first from 2013 to 2015, then he was transferred to Delhi Daredevils where he stayed for these two years before coming back to the pink jersey in 2018. He was made the captain of the franchise in 2021 and under his leadership, the team reached the final for the first time since the inaugural edition in 2022.

Royals love story with Samson comes to an end

Samson was the star player of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL; the RR brand revolved around him as he was the main man of the franchise. But all that glory still could not help Sanju’s international career and even his IPL career didn’t go to the heights everyone expected.

In his early days, the expectation was that Samson would go on to become one of the big names in Indian cricket, but at present, he is in a position of a player still waiting to make his mark as every cricket fan would have liked.

Samson has been dropped from the Indian ODI squad for the upcoming series against South Africa, but he did not receive consistent opportunities for the Indian cricket team even before that happening.

He is either warming the bench or playing out of position for the Indian side, and thus his growth to full potential as a player in Indian cricket has been hampered. He has proven his capability in whatever limited opportunities he has had.

Now Sanju Samson is at Chennai Super Kings, one of the winningest teams in the IPL. We have witnessed how in some players’ careers, the trend after playing for CSK has only been up, and Sanju will be wishing for a similar fate.

Sanju Samson is king among the super kings

Now, it is a guaranteed fact that the player and fan talk about you as a must for being in the limelight, at least in the Indian cricket context. It is true that Sanju Samson had the support of his fans in RR, but at the very least, he is still in a different category altogether at CSK.

No doubt, CSK’s fan base is the largest and most affectionate in the franchisee as well as in the cricket world. The fans are extremely loyal to their players and if Samson can manage to win over the audience in the yellow jersey, then his ‘image’ in Indian cricket will definitely multiplied by a few times.

CSK is associated with serious clarity of roles and with players’ support, although Sanju may not need such things at all, if you observe the remarks of the ex-CSK players, you will see how the franchise treats its players differently.

But it is indeed very likely that with Ruturaj Gaikwad also not getting the national side for very long and Dhoni probably in his last IPL season, the CSK management might have huge plans for Sanju.

The deal with a big franchise and good performance might be the factors that together increase the likelihood of Samson getting a consistent run with the national side, and from there, he will only grow if he delivers.

Sanjuu Samson here dhidii’s hero?

It is a common saying that ‘Dhoni is CSK and CSK is Dhoni.’ The entire orbit of the franchise revolves around Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He is the face of the franchise, and if he is on the field, all the attention will be directed towards him.

As noted earlier, Sanju was the face of the Royals, their captain, but he will have to remain under Dhoni’s shadow until the former Indian captain is done with IPL. It will be quite interesting to observe Sanju’s growth in this context.

On top of that, CSK appears to be really sure about Ruturaj being their captain. MS Dhoni picked him as his successor at the franchise and the Super Kings have a reputation of supporting their players.

So Samson will be on a different path since the 31-year-old is not the marquee captaincy choice for the franchise and with Dhoni around, he will have to remain in his shadow for now.

But CSK’s gradual shift from their conventional mode of operation might pave the way for Sanju to lead the franchise in the future, provided he performs on a consistent basis and Dhoni retires after the 2026 season.

He is already a captain with IPL experience, the current CSK squad is quite young, and Gaikwad has already had only 2 years of experience in leading the franchise.

A pivotal moment for both CSK and Samson

Chennai Super Kings are clearly witnessing a transition that resembles a total revamp.

They have traded players like Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, and released Matheesha Pathirana along with many others.

Most probably, this is going to be the last season for Dhoni and CSK have been trying to get Sanju for quite some time now.

If the Indian cricket team management and the BCCI can keep him on the sidelines for a short time only if Sanju reaches his full potential and becomes consistent.

The T20I debut of Sanju Samson happened in 2015 against Zimbabwe, and his next T20I match was in four and a half years. To worsen the matter, it took him 6 years from the start of his T20I career to get the ODI call-up.

This indicates that he has always been forced to work hard to get less. However, this is the case with Samson. Now the Chennai Super Kings has adopted him. He might have a hard time dealing with a big franchise and a legend like MS Dhoni’s directing. All these aspects make it impossible to predict how the future of the player, Samson, will be.