Another major franchise was surrounded by a lot of speculation regarding some of its big-budget players, but SRH owners have retained most of their players. Often known for their all-out approach before the auction, Sunrisers will enter the mini-auction with the third-largest purse, despite retaining most of the players.
After a poor start to the IPL 2025 season, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost 6 of their first 8 matches and were eliminated from the tournament, but made a shocking comeback with four consecutive wins after the IPL resumed after a short hiatus.
However, they could only finish sixth on the points table with 13 points, as their last two games were washed out due to rain and the second was a shock defeat.
SRH proved the speculations wrong by retaining big budget players
Sources across multiple media streams first suggested that Ishan Kishan and Mohammed Shami were among the two big names to be released by SRH ahead of the mini-auction. Shami’s news was not wrong, but Kishan never seemed to be involved in the plan.
Rumors intensified on social media when the release of Heinrich Klaasen by the runner-up of the 2024 season began to be discussed. Klaasen was such an important player in the SRH team that Pat Cummins reduced his price slot to retain the South African back in 2025.
Even for Harshal Patel, it wasn’t his best bowling of the season for SRH that fetched him Rs 8 crore in the mega-auction, but he still managed to become their highest wicket-taker in the season and has been retained accordingly.
SRH retained players
Despite several claims that SRH is releasing players like Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, or Harshal Patel, Sunrisers have not parted ways with any of the above mentioned cricketers.
Ishan was bought for Rs 11.25 crore in the mega-auction and had a good season with Sunrisers, although it did not live up to his potential. Klaasen, on the other hand, was SRH’s highest scorer in the 2023 and 2025 seasons and the most destructive middle-order batsman in the recent T20I circuit.
SRH’s retained players for IPL 2026: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R Smrana, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins (captain), Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Malinga and Zeeshan Ansari.
SRH releases players ahead of IPL mini-auction
The most surprising release of Sunrisers Hyderabad happened just days before the original retention date. Not only did they get rid of Mohammed Shami, who had not performed well for them last season, but they also acquired a huge asset from an all-cash trade deal with Lucknow Super Giants.
Other players released, especially Abhinav Manohar, were expected to perform well last season but failed miserably, while Rahul Chahar and Adam Zampa could not be dependable spinners in the team.
List of players released by SRH: Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Tayde, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa and Mohammed Shami.
Also read: RCB retained and released players list for IPL 2026: Royal Challengers Bangalore’s full squad ahead of the auction
