Rajasthan Royals had shocked the entire cricketing fraternity by probably making the biggest trade ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. Before the BCCI deadline of November 15 to submit the final list of players retained and released, RR let go of their captain, Sanju Samson, who moved to CSK in a trade.

Samson was traded to Chennai Super Kings for his price of INR 18 crores, while RR got ace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and England’s talented Sam Curran in return. RR also traded in South African all-rounder Donovan Ferreira from the Delhi Capitals.

Meanwhile, RR retained their core of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Jofra Archer, Riyan Parag, and more.

List of players retained by Rajasthan Royals:

Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Kunal Rathore, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kwena Maphaka, Ashok Sharma, Nandre Burger

List of players released by Rajasthan Royals:

Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma.

Trades: Sanju Samson to CSK, Nitish Rana to DC; Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran traded in from CSK

Kolkata Knight Riders have surprisingly decided to release Venkatesh Iyer ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. Iyer was bought by KKR for INR 23.75 crores in the IPL 2025 auction, but he underperformed with just 142 runs from 11 games. KKR will hope to buy back Iyer for a cheaper price in the IPL 2026 auction.

KKR also parted ways with Andre Russell, who has been part of the franchise since 2014. Quinton de Kock, Spencer Johnson, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Moeen Ali were also let go by KKR. The Indian duo of Luvnith Sisodia and Chetan Sakariya were also released, with Mayank Markande traded out to MI.

Surprisingly, KKR has decided to retain their IPL 2025 captain, Ajinkya Rahane, who ended up as their highest run-getter last season with 390 runs at a strike rate touching 150. They had held negotiations with the Delhi Capitals for KL Rahul’s trade, but KKR’s stubbornness in not parting with their talents led to talks failing.

List of players retained by Kolkata Knight Riders:

Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik

List of players released by Kolkata Knight Riders:

Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Moeen Ali, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Luvnith Sisodia, Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson

Trades: Mayank Markande to the Mumbai Indians