Sanju Samson leaving Rajasthan Royals (RR) to join Chennai Super Kings (CSK) could be a reality before IPL 2026. There were rumours about Samson possibly leaving RR and they could turn out to be true. A report has suggested that CSK would sign Samson if he is available. Apart from CSK, a couple of more franchises are also interested in signing Samson. He is the present captain of RR and it isn't known whether Samson wants to leave the franchise or not.

Samson is RR's homegrown player and they spotted him back in 2013. They signed him to an IPL deal and as they say, the rest is history. Courtesy of his success with RR, Samson was on the flight to England for the white-ball series a year later. He made his India debut against Zimbabwe in 2015.

RR re-signed Samson in the IPL 2018 mega-auction and he has been with them since then. He was retained by RR before the IPL 2025 mega-auction. The Rajasthan-based franchise paid a huge sum of Rs 18 crore to Samson to retain his services.

CSK, if they want to sign Samson, will have to shell out 18 crore or more. Samson will be MS Dhoni's long-term replacement if he joins CSK.

Samson's IPL pay is 4 times more than Dhoni's present salary. Since Dhoni hadn't played international cricket for more than 5 years, the CSK legend became an uncapped player before the IPL 2025 mega-auction. CSK were able to retain him for Rs 4 crore in the uncapped category.

Dhoni had a salary of Rs 12 crore in IPL 2022, 2023 and 2024. Of course, the India legend agreed to get retained for Rs 4 crore. Dhoni is only expected to play one or two IPL seasons and CSK have seemingly kicked off their preparations to sign a player who can be his long-term replacement.