Kumar Sangakkara obviously understands cricket better than most. But he also knows a bit about business and what makes a good trade.

"The best trade is where both sides are happy, but also slightly unhappy. That is a great trade," he says. It's also a one-line summary to explain who got the better end of the biggest trade in the history of IPL - the swap of Sanju Samson for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran from Chennai Super Kings.

The merits and demerits of that arrangement were obvious right from the outset, but for long it was difficult to assess who got the favourable hand; a confusion which is probably settled following Samson's recent run in India's World Cup-winning campaign. However, in bringing back their original 'rockstar', Royals have had to let go of their biggest face - the one on whom they had sat invested for nearly a decade.

Star-figures don't come easy, and Royals would know better of that struggle to find one. It's visible in their in-stadia branding - posters with sets of three players staring right back at you. The interesting bit about that posturing is that those three players could be anyone - Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja or Vaibhav Suryavanshi. While posterboys may be plenty in the team, there is no single star figure who has cemented himself at the centre of that frame, screaming his presence. If not all, quite a few of them take turns in the spotlight.

This revolving door attraction isn't the kind of which Mumbai Indians enjoy - with Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah in their ranks. For Royals, it's the consequence of the absence of a definitive figure that fans and brands can rally behind. It's ironic that a team which has labelled itself as the 'royals' is still unsure of its king. And that big figure has been absent for so long that they have preferred embracing more glamorous theories - from 'moneyball' to 'investing in youth' - than cricketing figures to sell their brand of cricket.

Unfortunately, last checked, neither was Indian cricket's youth program dependent on them nor were there any brownie points for discovering new talent at the cost of winning the IPL. Yet, when the retention list was to be submitted for the 2025 IPL mega auctions there was no place for Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, R Ashwin or Yuzvendra Chahal - all of whom had formed the core of Royals' charge to the final and third-place finish in the three-year cycle. The bet, instead, was placed on an unusual list, which included Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag and Sandeep Sharma, along with the duo of Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

As one of their coaches chest-thumped last season in validation of Vaibhav Suryavanshi's century 'we don't create stars, we make them', it all fit in with the Royals narrative, the youth story, one that has served as their best defense against the absence of trophies in their cabinet and players who regularly feature for the national team. Ahead of their opening game of IPL 2026, head coach Kumar Sangakkara, however, wanted to put that theory to rest.

"Just before the big auction in 2022 we changed our mindset," he admitted, before going on to explain the rationale of Royals' team assembly. "Before that, the Rajasthan Royals had to be a little creative in selecting their squads, they hadn't really spent a full purse at the auction.

"At the end of that 2021 season, it was decided that this was the time to really reset. So we started looking at not just backing young talent but backing proper talent and ability. So if you look at how we structured our side in 2022, we had a lot of experience. We had Yuzi, Ashwin, Hetmyer, Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, we were led by Sanju Samson, so we had a lot of experience.

"We changed our philosophy a bit, we also started looking after our players from all year round, really having an impact on how they do it and then we started to have better scouting, we have better analytics, so we had quite a lot of change that really set us on that journey to becoming a better side, a side that performs more consistently.

"While doing that, we keep an eye out for great young players. It was in 2022 or 2023 when one of our analysts (Akshay Karanje) told us, there's this amazing young player called Vaibhav Suryavanshi. He sent a text on the group saying, I've seen this amazing young player and we really need to have a look at him. We had another scout who went and saw him as well and they were all like, yeah. That's how we identified Vaibhav Suryavanshi because of those changes we made in terms of our analysts and our scouting and investing time into that. Because of that insistence, we had Vaibhav come into our trials and anyone who sees Vaibhav for five minutes knows that it's not just talent, it's absolute ability.

"So we keep doing the same thing, we look at experience, we look at ability, and if by chance, we have space for really amazing talent that we feel we can develop in a one-year, two-year period, we'll do that. That's how we look at it, it's not just about being young, it's about having ability, having enough options in our squad to ensure that they can actually play at any time. We don't look at will he be better in six years anymore, we look at a very small time period now."

Despite the changes to their tactics, the average age of their top-five could be potentially less than 24. Yet, that is to take very little away from their combined ability and threat. Despite a combined age of only 39, Jaiswal and Suryavanshi could be the most explosive opening pair in the competition.

The big star figures may be absent from the squad, but it isn't the worst thing to happen in a team sport. And if latest valuations are anything to go by - Rajasthan Royals bought at USD 1.63 billion as compared to RCB (a team with a WPL franchise and the biggest star in world cricket) being bought at USD 1.78 billion - the absence of a star figure seems to have had little impact on sales figures either, even if annual revenues could provide that economic differentiator.

*****

One of the outcomes of letting Samson leave, apart from the void at the top order, was filling the leadership position. Five candidates who were in the race - Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruve Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja and Sandeep Sharma - were interviewed before Parag was chosen as the heir of carrying forward the legacy.

Parag, in many ways, is Royals' biggest investment. Not only has he been with the franchise since his debut, but got an incredibly long rope when he was far from delivering for his team, the kind of which no other player in another franchise had enjoyed. A promotion in batting order in 2024, and a flurry of runs changed his standing in the young team. Still only 24, he is the youngest captain in this year's tournament, with the experience of having already led the side in Samson's injury absence last season.

He isn't the perfect captaincy candidate, but the best they could find, according to Sangakkara. "We had very strict parameters as to how we're going to choose," the head coach confessed. "We had lots of conversations with all five candidates, not just once, but twice, thrice, sometimes four times and we realised that all five of them are very capable of captaining RR. Riyan came across as a top candidate because in all his conversations he seemed to have matured quite a lot, he was very reflective in answering all the questions and the questions were very tough. They were not just questions for the sake of it, they were very targeted questions and you push them, and some of those questions are quite uncomfortable for all of them.

"By having those conversations, we got to understand those five candidates a lot more and especially Riyan with his maturity, how he reflected, what his vision was for the side and how he wanted to not just captain but also lead the team. It made him the leading candidate..

"We look at maturity, we look at the ability to reflect on themselves not just others, we look at the ability to think critically, we look at how authentic they are in terms of their answers, we look at how they can influence others around them not just young players but also players who are more senior and in our squad. We also ask really tough questions about their personal experiences in cricket away from the field that we have seen them go through, the ups and downs of playing cricket and ups and downs in their own lives.

"One of the questions was: if you are not the captain, what would your attitude and support be towards not just the person who is going to captain but the team? It is a simple question but it also sets kind of the line in the sand where you have to think about the fact that yes, you might not be captain. We learnt a lot about the players through that process and I really loved talking to all of them,

"We just want to get a feel for who they are and how they will be through a tough, tough IPL season. We are not looking to make the perfect choice, we are trying to make the best choice - no captain or leader is perfect and I have been a captain, I know how many mistakes I have made along the way. That is absolutely fine, that is how you learn and everyone is human.

"Riyan is going to have a lot of support. Jadeja, Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Sandeep Sharma, we have Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Dasun Shanaka. He has got a lot of people who he can lean on in tough times and good times and they are all very, very invested in making sure that they are as part of the leadership, they do their best," he believes.

Most teams in the IPL that endure such long stretches without a trophy to show, often see chaos in the leadership. Rajasthan Royals in that sense, have been fairly stable. Now, they have found a new homegrown successor, one who is shaped and honed, just like Samson.

*****

The big trade involving Samson almost took away the spotlight from some of the other changes that took place in the side, in their quest for their first IPL title since 2008. It could be argued that they got a favourable deal when they roped in Donovan Ferreira - a highly-rated all-rounder in the T20 circuit - for Nitish Rana from Delhi Capitals. However, Sangakkara confessed, it was a decision taken out of necessity of balancing out the side and being able to improve in areas that let the team down last season despite the prolific scoring by the top order.

"We had a middle order issue in terms of how we kept the tempo going and how we stayed ahead of the game and how we have to be a little bit smarter in the way we approach spin and that scoring time through the middle. We had to improve a little bit at the depth as well, so we had to do trades. We had to trade Nitish Rana. It is difficult to trade - a very good Indian player, but we were left with no choice. We had to have that death hitting ability. So we have Donovan now, we have Shanaka coming in as also to bolster that back order if needed."

Sangakkara is hopeful the alterations made to the side, and the inputs given to the players after last season would yield the desired result with largely the same set of players at the core.

"We have had conversations with our players after last season about areas they have to improve. You can be the best player in the world, but you still have to be very realistic about what you need to do when you come into an IPL side. So we have had those chats. They were very open to that feedback and they have done a lot of work on the offensive in and off-season. They have done a lot of work in the last two weeks, so you never know until you start playing,"

Stripped of their biggest star, burdened with a young captain, and a new set of owners in tow - are they starting on a happy note or not? Perhaps the bets deals in cricket often leave that conundrum.

"To be very honest, we were extremely sad to see Sanju go," Sangakkara admitted. "He has been an incredible player for us, leader, captain, I have got to know him very closely over the last few years, but it was inevitable that that was going to happen. I thought we got two very very good players; one an incredible legend of the game in Jaddu, and Sam Curran [the other], who has matured a lot. They balance out our squad really well. Unfortunately Sam had to pull out because of injury.

"For them [CSK] they wanted the next generation leader, 'keeper and a wonderful bat. So I think both sides have walked away unhappy. That means it was a good trade for both sides," he concluded with a smile.