The trade rumours include two star wicketkeeper-batters.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 mini-auction is scheduled to take place in a few months. In the build-up to that, there has been a lot of talk around the trade rumours concerning several players, including Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, and more. The IPL 2026 season will get underway next summer, but franchises have already begun evaluating their squads and looking to identify their key areas of improvement.
There have been blockbuster trade moves in the past, with Hardik Pandya (Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians for INR 15 crore) being one of them. The all-rounder had shifted base back to the Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024 after having guided the Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL title in 2022, which was their debut season.
Let us now take a look at four big player trades that could take place before the IPL 2026 auction.
Multiple reports are suggesting that Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson could be traded to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). This comes at a time when the five-time champions are eyeing a replacement for the veteran MS Dhoni, who is at the fag end of his IPL career. In Samson, CSK will have a good captain who can lead from the front as well as a reliable wicketkeeper-batter. Reports also suggest that CSK could consider Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja or even Ravichandran Ashwin to complete the trade.
Samson, who has been with Rajasthan Royals since 2013 (barring 2016 and 2017 when RR were banned), recently spoke about his time with the franchise.
“RR has meant the world to me. A small child coming from a village in Kerala, wanting to show his talent. And then Rahul [Dravid] sir and Manoj Badale sir gave me a stage to get up and show the world what I am made of,” the Kerala batter said during an interaction with Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel.
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England all-rounder Will Jacks had a mediocre IPL 2025 season with the Mumbai Indians (MI), and this means that he could be on the move. In 13 matches, he scored just 233 runs and took six wickets.
Delhi Capitals (DC) is a potential team for Jacks. Reports suggest that DC could trade either Vipraj Nigam or Ashutosh Sharma. The 26-year-old is also part of the Pretoria Capitals’ squad in SA20. Pretoria Capitals is the sister franchise of Delhi Capitals in South Africa’s T20 league (SA20). Jacks has played 27 matches in SA20. He has scored 740 runs and taken 13 wickets.
This may come as a surprise, but wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul might be traded to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Delhi Capitals had acquired Rahul for INR 14 crore, and he had a good season with the bat.
The Karnataka batter aggregated 539 runs from 13 matches, which included three fifties and one century. According to The Times of India, KKR are eyeing Rahul to strengthen their batting and as a potential captaincy choice. Rahul also has a good rapport with Abhishek Nayar, who is the assistant coach of KKR.
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KKR acquired Venkatesh Iyer for INR 23.75 crore at the IPL 2025 mega auction, but he had a disappointing season. In 11 matches in IPL 2025, Venkatest scored just 142 runs at a strike rate of 139.21, including one half-century.
Reports are suggesting that Venkatesh could be traded with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for Phil Salt. The English batter had a productive season, scoring 403 runs from 13 matches, including four fifties. Having said that, RCB head coach Andy Flower had earlier revealed that his team were looking to get Venkatesh at the IPL 2025 mega auction. The two teams were involved in a bidding war.
“We rated Venky (highly), that’s why we went so hard for him. It was because we valued having a strong Indian core to our team. We wanted some exciting young cricketers and a left-hander in the top order. We didn’t get him. I would like to think if he played for us, he would have had a great season,” Andy had said.
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