KL Rahul was retained by Delhi Capitals before the IPL 2026.
However, those rumors were put to rest when DC announced their team ahead of the IPL 2016 mini auction. In response to all of the trade rumors, Hemang Badani claimed that the speculations amused him and praised KL Rahul for his consistency and versatility during the season with DC.
"I am quite amused by what people keep writing on social media. I keep looking at their thought process. I quietly keep looking at social media, and I am like, ‘Where is this information coming from?’. But that’s the way it is. People are entitled to their opinion; I respect that. But we were never going to let go of KL Rahul.
He is someone who has given us Rs 500 runs throughout the season. He has also batted at No. 4, No. 3 and batted at the top. He has scored runs everywhere. There was never an iota of doubt about retaining KL Rahul. It was quite funny that there was intense speculation about the trade. But KL Rahul is in our house," said Hemang Badani on Star Sports.
Rahul was bought for INR 14 Cr by DC at the IPL 2025 mega auction and had a prolific run in the season, scoring 539 runs from 13 innings at an average of 53.90 with one century and three fifties.
DC Retained Players –
Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, and Nitish Rana (traded in from RR)
DC Released Players-
Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Sediqullah Atal, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Manvanth Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, and Donovan Ferreira (traded to RR)