One of the teams that is being talked about the most this retention season is Rajasthan Royals. They are a team that are currently in hard trade negotiations with Chennai Super Kings. They are willing to let go of Sanju Samson in order to get Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran. This is a bold call as Sanju Samson has been a key player for them for a decade. They have a lot of thinking to do as to who they should release as they finished 9th in IPL 2025.
Let’s look at the Retained and Released Players by Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2026
Rajasthan Royals (RR) Released Players ahead of IPL 2026 Auction
Sanju Samson - Traded to Chennai Super Kings
Wanindu Hasaranga – 10.50 Cr
Nitish Rana – 4.20 Cr
Kunal Singh Rathore
Maheesh Theekshana*
Fazalhaq Farooqi
Kumar Kartikeya Singh – 1.80 Cr
Akash Madhwal
Ashok Sharma
These Players who will be released are those that the team had high hopes from and they were not able to deliver. Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga were expensive buys and they did not perform according to expectations and therefore they will be released to free up the purse for Rajasthan Royals. Nitish Rana, Kumar Kartikeya Singh and Akash Madwal will also be released as they were their big Indian hopes and they could not perform when the team needed.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) Retention List for IPL 2026
Yashasvi Jaiswal
Vaibhav Suryavanshi
Riyan Parag
Dhruv Jurel
Jofra Archer*
Yudhvir Singh Charak
Fazalhaq Farooqui*
Kwena Maphaka*
Nandre Burger*
Shubham Dubey
Lhuan dre Pretorius*
Shimron Hitmyer*
Tushar Deshpande
Ravindra Jadeja - Traded in from Chennai Super Kings
Sam Curran* - Traded in from Chennai Super Kings
Donovan Ferreira* - Trade in from Delhi Capitals
These Retained Players are the core of Rajasthan Royals. They are able to let go of Sanju Samson because they have explosive opening Batters in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi. Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel and Tushar Deshpande are the Indian players who will provide stability to this team. Fazalhaq Farooqui, Jofra Archer and Kwena Maphaka are the overseas fast bowlers that will allow them to breathe easy going into the auction. Rajasthan Royals need all rounders as they do not have any. They will also look fro spinners as well in the mini auction. Rajasthan Royals have a 16.05 Cr purse available for mini auction.
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