Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) director of cricket, Kumar Sangakkara revealed that swashbuckling keeper-batter Sanju Samson has been the “long-term leader” for the franchise. Ahead of the IPL 2022 auction, the franchise retained two Indians and one overseas player in the form of their influential skipper Samson, uncapped youngster, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and star Englishman Jos Buttler.

In a video posted by RR on Twitter, Kumar Sangakkara said, “We worked really hard in terms of working with our newly-formed data analytic team, with the help of all our partners in India and in the US we finally decided, of course, Sanju Samson, it was a no-brainer in terms of being our captain, number one. He is going to be the long-term leader of this unit of Rajasthan Royals. He has shown time and time again what a wonderful asset he has been for RR.”

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Having appointed Sanju Samson as their captain, RR has chosen the batter as the first retained player for INR 14 crores. They have also retained players at a cost of INR 10 crores with Jos Buttler, and the youngster Jaiswal.

Explaining the same, Kumar Sangakkara said, “We have retained Yashasvi Jaiswal, the young Indian opener, an absolute star in the making, he had a very very good season pre-retention, extremely talented. He is a very very quick learner, he is a hard worker and he will be our uncapped retention. In terms of the sole international retention, we have gone with Jos Buttler. He is an exceptional match-winner.”

The Lankan legend explained why they let go of Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes, which surprised many.

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Elaborating the same, Kumar Sangakkara said, “So on so forth, and we break it down into as much detail as possible so that we have all the tools with which to make the information as well with which to make the right decision. Ben Stokes is an absolute match winner and he has shown that for Rajasthan Royals. He just brings his amazing energy to the field but of course, we had to consider the number of retentions spots, player availability.”