IPL 2026 Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Released Players List Best Auction Strategy

With Abhishek Sharma and Overseas players in focus, here’s the best released and retained players list for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. 

One of the few teams that have always given importance to Overseas players over Indian players, the SRH have had a DNA of their own. Right from the initial days when it was the Deccan Chargers, the leader of the pack was Adam Gilchrist; it moved to David Warner when the team became the Sunrisers Hyderabad. It then moved to Kane Williamson as the leader, before settling down to Pat Cummins. It has been quite an overseas players-centric journey for the SRH team. 

Even if we look at the current SRH squad after the IPL 2025 Mega Auction revamp, the team is dominated by Overseas stars, primarily Pat Cummins, Travis Head, and Heinrich Klaasen. These are the three costliest players in the team, and undoubtedly the attraction of the team. While the team doesn’t have big Indian names, the team has a few emerging Indian players like Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Reddy, Ishan Kishan, etc. 

Given the approach and strategy of SRH, the team believes in playing a bold and aggressive brand of cricket. This was also reflected in their performance in the last two years, where they rarely cared about the outcome, and went on to play an aggressive brand of cricket. The team management also built their squad in such a way that all 8 batters can take on the bowling from ball 1.  However, by focusing too much on the batting, bowling is an area which they missed strategically.

SRH Released Players 2026 Discussed

If we observe the current bowling lineup of Sunrisers Hyderabad, the team doesn’t have any standout star Indian or Overseas bowler. Pat Cummins is a good bowler, but his T20 credentials aren’t something to cheer. Harshal Patel is a good bowler among wickets, but he needs a solid bowler who can control the flow of runs. Mohammed Shami has lost all his pace and zip post injury, and the team doesn’t have any standout Indian spinner in the squad. 

So, the team will have to look deeply into ramping up their bowling lineup, and for that, they will have to make a few changes in the side. Two bowlers who seem to have lost the zip they had previously, and should be on the radar to be released, are Mohammed Shami and Rahul Chahar. While Chahar wasn’t utilised at all last year, Shami isn’t the same bowler as he was before the injury. So, it makes sense to remove these two bowlers, and instead look for better alternatives in the Auction. 

Other than these two, Zampa may not be needed in the team, as that place will mostly be needed by an Overseas pacer. So, Zampa, Mulder, who doesn’t look like a good fit for T20 cricket, and Sachin Baby may be the ones that SRH will look to release. With this release strategy, SRH should retain 17 players, and release 5 players. The team should roughly have around 22 Cr for the Auction, which will be good to buy 3-4 quality players. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Best Released Players IPL 2026

1. Sachin Baby
2. Adam Zampa (o)
3. Mohammed Shami
4. Rahul Chahar
5. Wiaan Mulder (o)

So, that’s about the best released players list for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for IPL 2026. Meanwhile, talking about the core of SRH ahead of the Auction, we have Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Heinrich Klaasen among solid front-line batters. Then we have Nitish Reddy, Abhinab Manohar, and Aniket Verma among finishers. Whereas in the bowling department, SRH have Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, and Ehsan Malinga. 

Overall, SRH’s main pain point for now is ramping up the Overseas backups for Travis Head, Pat Cummins, and Heinrich Klaasen. Whereas among Indian bowlers, the team can look to target a few emerging Indian pacers and spinners. If the team strengthens the bowling department in the Auction, their job will be much easier during the tournament. Since they might get around 20 Cr with this strategy, that should be enough to buy a few potential players. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Best Retained Players IPL 2026

Batters

• Abhinav Manohar
• Aniket Verma
• Atharva Taide
• Smaran Ravichandran
• Travis Head (o)

WKs

• Heinrich Klaasen (o)
• Ishan Kishan

All-rounders

• Abhishek Sharma
• Harsh Dubey
• Kamindu Mendis (o)
• Nitish Reddy

Bowlers

• Ehsan Malinga (o)
• Harshal Patel
• Jaydev Unadkat
• Pat Cummins (o&c)
• Simarjeet Singh
• Zeeshan Ansari

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