IPL 2026: Rajasthan Royals (RR) Best Released Players List and Mini Auction Preview

From Maheesh Theekshana to Sanju Samson, let’s review the best predicted released players list for Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. 

The first Indian Premier League winner, the Rajasthan Royals, have not tasted success ever since then. It’s been almost 18 years, and while winning their second trophy has still been a distant dream, the team has been able to play the final only once since then. One could say their first IPL was a one-off performance, and that’s not an understatement either. The team has actually been very poor post that 2008 success.

The IPL 2025, which saw Rajasthan Royals undergo a transition in the form of a Mega Auction, didn’t witness the performance that was expected from them. While the performance was bad overall, the fact that the team made many blunders in the Auction too can’t be undermined. The team made blunders in their retention strategy, and during the Auction, the gaps, like All-rounders and quality Indian spinners, weren’t addressed too

The focus for Rajasthan Royals now shifts to IPL 2026, and their first priority will be to rectify their mistakes in the upcoming IPL 2026 Mini Auction. Before that, the Rajasthan Royals will have to make some tough calls, and release some unwanted or redundant players in the Auction pool. But which players will the Rajasthan Royals team look to retain and release? Well, let’s look at the best predicted released and retained players list for Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.

IPL 2026 Rajasthan Royals (RR) Best Predicted Retained Players List

When we observe the current Rajasthan Royals squad, there are two major gaps that are largely visible. One, the team doesn’t have good all-rounders in the side, and second, they do not have quality Indian spinners in the side. While getting quality Indian spinners may be difficult given the lack of supply, the team should look to rectify the All-rounders issue in the Auction. But to buy those new players, which players are the Rajasthan Royals likely to remove?

Well, from the current squad, the Rajasthan Royals have too many Overseas pacers. The team currently has 4 Overseas pacers, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Kwena Maphaka, and Fazalhaq Farooqi. Now, if not two, the team should remove at least one pacer from the squad. Kwena is young and exciting, so the team may persist with him for now. But expect RR to release Fazalhaq Farooqi, while retaining the other three.

Coming to the spin department, RR may actually contemplate releasing Maheesh Theekshana, given that the team may want to focus on adding All-rounders in the side; it doesn’t matter even if they are Overseas. With these two deletions, RR may persist with the likes of Lhuan De-Pretorius, Wanindu Hasaranga, and even Shimron Hetmyer. So, overall, RR may continue with 6 Overseas players, and look to add two more in the Auction.

IPL 2026 Best Predicted Released Players List for Rajasthan Royals (RR)

1. Ashok Sharma
2. Kunal Rathore
3. Kumar Kartikeya
4. Fazalhaq Farooqi (o)
5. Maheesh Theekshana (o)

With these releases, apart from 2-3 Indian players, the Rajasthan Royals may still not have enough for the Auction. Their best players, like Sanju, Archer, Jaiswal, Riyan, etc., are all expensive, and hence they might have utilised 119 Cr already with these retentions. So, if we add another 5 Cr as purse value, RR may have around 6 Cr only for the Auction. With 6 Cr, all the Rajasthan Royals can do is add 1-2 good players max.

IPL 2026 Best Predicted Retained Players List for Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Batters

1. Lhuan de Pretorius (o)
2. Shimron Hetmyer (o)
3. Shubham Dubey
4. Vaibhav Suryavanshi
5. Yashasvi Jaiswal

WKs

1. Dhruv Jurel
2. Sanju Samson (c)

All-rounders

1. Nitish Rana
2. Riyan Parag
3. Wanindu Hasaranga (o)

Bowlers

1. Akash Madhwal
2. Jofra Archer (o)
3. Kwena Maphaka (o)
4. Nandre Burger (o)
5. Sandeep Sharma
6. Tushar Deshpande
7. Yudhvir Charak

So, as we can see, Rajasthan Royals have a decent squad before the Auction, but if they need more purse for the Auction, they will have to make a few big calls by releasing big-ticket players. They will do it, is still a question mark. There are talks about Sanju Samson’s potential departure from RR, but all those talks look good only for rumour mongering, with hardly any truth behind it. 

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