Rajasthan Royals (RR) qualified for the playoffs in the IPL 2026 tournament and made it into Qualifiers 2 as well. Under the captaincy of Riyan Parag, RR made merry, with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi enjoying a breakout season with the bat.
However, there are problems with the RR squad, and they need to identify which players will be required for them in the upcoming IPL 2027 season and which players they can dispose of. There are chances of some big surprises in retention and releases by RR before the IPL 2027 auction, and we see three possible players they can release.
Here are the 3 players RR could release before the IPL 2027 mini-auction:
3. Sandeep Sharma
Sandeep Sharma was retained by PBKS for IPL 2026, but his poor performance led to the franchise benching him after six games. He picked 5 wickets, but at an economy of 11.38, not justifying his reputation as a death-overs bowler. Sandeep Sharma has 241 wickets in 218 T20s and has even played two T20Is for India, but his effectiveness becomes nil if the ball stops swinging, and given his pace of 130 kph, batters find it easy to hit him in the death overs if he even errs slightly.
2. Adam Milne
Adam Milne has never managed to break the IPL code despite being New Zealand’s prime pacer in the format. He has a good record in ODIs and T20Is and even has 277 T20 wickets in 244 games, excelling in other T20 leagues, but in the IPL, he has never quite won the confidence of any franchise he has played for. Milne played one game for RR in IPL 2026, going for 41 runs in 3.2 overs, and never got a game again. It is unlikely that RR will retain Milne for IPL 2027.
1. Dasun Shanaka
Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup 2022 winning captain, Dasun Shanaka, played 7 games for RR in IPL 2026, managing 63 runs with a strike rate of 136.95 and picking one wicket. He was brought into the team as a finisher, but in the chances he got, Shanaka failed to impress everyone either with the bat or with the ball. He has an impressive resume of 5963 runs and 131 wickets in 329 T20s, but he has not gelled well in the RR lineup as a finisher, and the franchise will be better at releasing him and finding some other alternative.
