Follow UsIn a shock trade deal, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) let go of their crucial all-rounders, Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran, to get Sanju Samson in return. While the deal certainly had some cricketing value to it, reports suggested that Jadeja only returned to the Rajasthan Royals (RR) with an eye on that captaincy role.
Multiple reports claimed that Jadeja is all set to become the franchise’s new captain for IPL 2026, beating the likes of Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal for that role. However, RR’s owner, Manoj Badale, cleared the air, stating that Jadeja becoming their captain isn’t part of the conversation yet.
“Not really. And it's not part of the conversation right now. We actually have got the player leadership group together twice, once including him, to make it clear that we are going to go through a process over the next couple of months. We've got probably six or seven players that could be RR captain,” Badale told ESPNCricinfo.
Badale also reckoned that the franchise’s immediate focus is on the upcoming mini auction, where they will have INR 16.05 crore to fill the nine slots. Ahead of the auction, however, the franchise was involved in multiple trade deals that saw them pick up Jadeja, Curran and Donvan Ferreira (from DC), strengthening their setup.
“We didn't want to get into that and embark on that part of the process until we knew the trade was happening. Otherwise, it becomes a futile process. Now that the trade is done, our absolute short-term focus is the auction. Once the auction is done, our next focus then will be the captaincy process,” he added.
While RR has had an image of being a factory that produces talent, Badale reckoned that their focus has been only on winning the IPL in the last five seasons.
“The media has been always very kind describing us as India's most important talent factory. And, of course, the stats bear that out pretty unambiguously. But I've always had a wry smile when I read those things because we've never had any other objective - certainly for the past four years - of doing anything other than winning the IPL. We are not only here to develop young talent. We are here to compete and win,” he said.