After Chennai Super Kings (CSK) traded Sanju Samson in at the cost of Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran, the wicketkeeper-batter started IPL 2026 with three single-digit scores, all of which were part of losses for his new franchise.

Samson has turned things around so much that he has three fifty-plus scores in seven innings since, including a match-winning 87 not out off 52 balls against Delhi Capitals (DC) on a tricky pitch on Tuesday.

Aaron Finch is impressed with how Samson has dealt with pressure and settled into his new team.

“He missed out the first couple of games, didn’t he? All of a sudden there was a massive panic that what has CSK done,” Finch said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “They’ve got Sanju Samson and he’s not performing. Two games in T20 is nothing. To go right through a season ultra-consistent is so difficult. You probably can’t underestimate the pressure on somebody going into a team like CSK. Being a huge marquee signing particularly when you have traded someone like Jadeja out of the side as well.

“Although he [Samson] had a dream run at the end of the [T20] World Cup and then he’s come in [at CSK] and missed out a couple of times, there will still be some pride and pressure and almost some feeling that you can tend to overplay it slightly in your own head that you want to get to a new franchise and really lay down a marker and say ‘I’m here’.

“This is what you’re traded for and the superstar that you’ve been crying out for. So, the fact that he’s batting on a different level is great to see.”

After winning the Player-of-the-Tournament award at the T20 World Cup, which India defended successfully at home, Samson has been at the forefront of CSK’s success with the bat this IPL. He currently has 402 runs in ten innings at an average of 57.42 and strike rate of 167.50.

Even at his previous franchise, Rajasthan Royals (RR), Samson usually started well with the bat, but couldn’t maintain his consistency through the season. Deep Dasgupta marvelled at the new version of Samson.

“This is the version of Sanju Samson we’ve been wanting to see for quite a few years now,” Dasgupta said. “So, every season you see couple of those innings and go ‘wow, what a player!’ but then it would only end up being those couple of innings. But now, starting from the World Cup, he’s been so consistent and [in] this season, well, this is the only fifty he’s got. Every time he goes past fifty, he gets a hundred and he stays not out. Again, he stays not out on 87, brilliant innings. It just seemed like he was playing on a different surface.”

After the win against DC, CSK stayed in sixth place on the points table but were only two points behind the four teams ranked from second to fifth.