Kumar Sangakkara voiced frustration over Sam Curran’s choice to miss the IPL 2026 with Rajasthan Royals after a groin injury, even as the all-rounder returned to competitive action for Surrey shortly afterwards. Speaking on the situation, the former Sri Lankan captain described the call as “disappointing”, noting that Curran had turned out for Surrey in the men’s Vitality Blast on May 22, which appeared to signal his comeback.
Sangakkara said he had been told Curran’s injury would rule him out for the season, but felt the timeline didn’t match what he saw. “We were told that Sam Curran had a season-ending injury, but I think I saw him playing for Surrey for two games or three games now. So that was disappointing,” Sangakkara said. “We would have loved to have had him here playing for us.”
His comments came after Rajasthan Royals were eliminated from the playoffs, losing to Gujarat Titans and missing out on a place in the final.
Curran had joined RR from Chennai Super Kings in an exchange that included Ravindra Jadeja, with Sanju Samson moving in the other direction. With Curran unavailable, Rajasthan brought in Dasun Shanaka as his replacement on March 23. The move also triggered debate, since Shanaka had to step away from his Lahore Qalandars arrangement for PSL 2026 in order to sign with RR. As a result, Shanaka was handed a one-year ban from the PSL.
For Surrey, Curran has featured only as a batter and has not bowled in the three matches he has played. Separately, Sangakkara referenced the wider auction fallout rules in Indian cricket, after the BCCI announced a two-year ban in 2024 for players who withdraw after being selected at auctions.
“Yeah, I think a proper tight policy around that is always a requirement. The BCCI has a strict policy on that,” Sangakkara said. “Injuries, every person goes through injuries, and if it’s a serious injury, a season ending injury, of course we understand.”
Even with that context, Sangakkara stressed that he would still have preferred to see Curran in the Royals environment. “We’ve also had players like Adam Milne, [Shimron] Hetmyer, quite a few who came here and not had much of a game; Lhuan-dre Pretorius is another one, Kwena Maphaka is another one. They’ve been here, they’ve done the hard yards, they’ve practiced, they’ve carried water for the team, and they’ve really worked as hard as anyone else to support the team in this journey,” he added.
Curran himself explained that he had been managing the groin issue throughout the T20 World Cup. “It’s an injury that I’ve kind of been battling with a little bit,” he said. “It has gradually got fractionally worse. I went for a couple of scans and it showed reasonable damage, so I had to make the tough decision. It was hindering me quite a bit,” he added.
