Jadeja, one of CSK’s longest-serving players with over 250 appearances across 12 seasons, will join RR on a reduced league fee of Rs 14 crore, down from Rs 18 crore.
Photo: IANS
The Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed a flurry of activity on the final day of player trades with eight confirmed moves, headlines by the high-profile switches of Ravindra Jadeja and Sanju Samson between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). In a major shake-up, Jadeja has been traded to the Royals while Samson will make his way to the CSK. Later in the evening, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) dropped the bombshell by releasing star all-rounder Andre Russell, who has been a constant for the franchise since IPL 2014.
Jadeja, one of CSK’s longest-serving players with over 250 appearances across 12 seasons, will join RR on a reduced league fee of Rs 14 crore, down from Rs 18 crore.
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Commenting on his return to the Royals’ set-up, Jadeja said, “Rajasthan Royals gave me my first platform and my first taste of victory. Coming back feels special, it’s not just a team for me, it’s home. Rajasthan Royals is where I won my first IPL, and I hope to win more with this current group of players,” said the all-rounder in a statement released by the franchise on Saturday.
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Samson, meanwhile, switched to CSK at his existing fee of Rs 18 crore. The wicketkeeper-batter, who made his IPL debut in 2013, has largely been associated with RR barring a two-year stint with Delhi Capitals (DC) in 2016 and 2017. CSK becomes only the third franchise of his career.
“We are only here for a short period of time. Gave my everything to this franchise, enjoyed some great cricket, made some lifetime relations, treated everyone in the franchise as my family.. And when it’s time..I am moving on.. Shall always be grateful for everything @rajasthanroyals,” Samson wrote in a social media post.
England all-rounder Sam Curran also features in the CSK–RR shuffle, moving to the Royals at his current fee of Rs 2.4 crore. The 27-year-old, who has featured in 64 IPL matches, adds RR to a resume that includes stints with Punjab Kings (2019, 2023, 2024) and CSK.
Shami traded to LSG
Meanwhile, as reported by The Statesman on Friday, veteran pacer Mohammed Shami has been traded from Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the same fee of Rs 10 crore. Shami, one of SRH’s most expensive buys ahead of the 2025 season, brings a wealth of experience with 119 IPL matches and a Purple Cap-winning campaign in 2023 for Gujarat Titans (GT). Although he missed the 2024 season due to injury, he remains one of the league’s most impactful bowlers.
Elsewhere, leg-spinner Mayank Markande will return to Mumbai Indians (MI) following a trade from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Acquired by KKR for Rs 30 lakh, he rejoins MI, where he began his IPL journey in 2018, at the same fee. Markande has played 37 IPL matches and taken an equal number of wickets across spells with MI, RR and SRH.
LSG also bolstered their squad by acquiring bowling all-rounder Arjun Tendulkar from MI, who moves at his existing fee of Rs 30 lakh. Tendulkar was first picked by MI in the 2021 auction and made his IPL debut in 2023.
Left-handed batter Nitish Rana will now represent DC after being traded from RR, retaining his Rs 4.2 crore fee. With over 100 IPL appearances, Rana briefly captained KKR in 2023 in Shreyas Iyer’s absence.
Meanwhile, South African all-rounder Donovan Ferreira returns to RR following a trade from DC that sees his fee rise from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Russell released by KKR; PBKS let go Inglis, Maxwell
Moments after the deadline of player trades ended on Saturday, franchises updated their rosters with release of key players. West Indian power-hitter Russell headlined the list after being released by three-time IPL champions KKR, and is set to be a sought-after name in the December 16 auction.
After Delhi Capitals refused to trade away KL Rahul to KKR, the 2024 IPL champions went on a releasing spree offloading their three big buys Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 23.75 crore), Anrich Nortje (Rs 6.5 crore) English all-rounder Moeen Ali (Rs 2 crore), along with South African Quinton de Kock (Rs 3.6 crore).
Meanwhile, DC have offloaded veteran South African Faf du Plessis (Rs 2 crore) along with Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mohit Sharma, Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar and Darshan Nalkande.
CSK let go one of their retentions ahead of last year’s mega auction Matheesha Pathirana, who was bought for a whopping Rs 13 crores, along with New Zealander Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shaik Rasheed, Vansh Bedi, Andre Siddarth and Rahul Tripathi.
Last year’s finalists Punjab Kings parted ways with wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis, along with Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Hardie and Kuldeep Sen.
Sunrisers Hyderabad got rid of their two leg-spinners Adam Zampa (Rs 2.4 crore) and Rahul Chahar (Rs 3.2 crore), along with Abhinav Manohar, Wiaan Mulder, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby and Simarjeet Singh, while Gujarat Titans have offloaded Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya apart from former Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka.
Lucknow Super Giants announced a surprising list of departures ahead of IPL 2026, releasing Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Deep, David Miller, Aryan Juyal, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar and Shamar Joseph.
After trading in Jadeja and Curran, Rajasthan Royals released as many as seven players, that included Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal, Ashok Sharma, Fazal Farooqi, Kumar Kartikeya, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana.
Mumbai Indians announced the release of eight players, keeping in mind strategic adjustments and squad balance. Among them are Bevon Jacobs, Karn Sharma, KL Shrijith, Lizaad Williams, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley and Vignesh Puthur.
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru released Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani and Mohit Rathee from their winning season.
All squads with list of retained players
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, M.S. Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis. Traded in: Sanju Samson.
Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (c), KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera. Traded in: Nitish Rana.
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakravarthy, Luvnith Sisodia, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ramandeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson.
Lucknow Super Giants: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (c), Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh. Traded in: Mohammed Shami.
Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickleton, Robin Minz, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Allah Ghafanzar, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks. Traded in: Sherfane Rutherford (from GT), Mayank Markande (from KKR), Shardul Thakur (from LSG)
Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyala Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod
Rajasthan Royals: Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 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. Traded in: Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, and Suyash Sharma.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R. Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari.
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