5 Players Rajasthan Royals Should Release Before IPL 2026

Rajasthan Royals' IPL 2025 season will be one that goes down in history as a masterclass in wasted potential—a season where whopping investments in player retention collided with the cruel reality of on-field underperformance on cricket's biggest stage. The first-time champions, who once impressed with their underdog mentality, now struggle to answer a simple question: how did a team that invested more than ₹50 crore to keep players fail so epically?

 

Their tactic of investing in youth with fat cheques worked back on them big time. While other teams were partying like pros over shrewd pickups, RR helplessly witnessed their marquee signings wither under pressure. Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer, picked up for ₹25 crore combined, persistently failed to come through in pressure situations. The gut-wrenching one-run defeat to KKR wasn't another loss—it was a metaphor for a season when promise met reality and lost every single occasion.

 

As the franchise looks down the barrel of yet another rebuild, the tough choices are waiting. Cutting losses sometimes isn't merely strategy; it's survival.

 

5 Players Rajasthan Royals Should Release Before IPL 2026

 

Players	Retention/Price
Shimron Hetmyer	₹11 crore
Dhruv Jurel	₹14 crore
Fazalhaq Farooqi	₹2 crore
Tushar Deshpande	₹6.5 crore
Maheesh Theekshana	₹4.40 crore

 

Shimron Hetmyer

 

Image Source : BCCI

 

Rajasthan's misplaced faith in Shimron Hetmyer's explosive batting lost them ₹11 crore—far more than they spent on established performers such as Jos Buttler over the last few seasons. But for all that, the Guyanese left-hander provided nothing but heartache. His 239 runs in 13 innings at an average of 21.72 spoke volumes of mediocrity that no strike rate of 145.73 could help conceal.

 

The numbers paint a heartbreaking picture of decline. From the career-high 2022 season (314 runs at 44.85 average) to the calamity of 2025, Hetmyer's decline was a free fall. His highest score of 52 was the sole silver lining of RR's otherwise disappointing campaign. Not the numbers, however, hurt the most, it was watching a proven finisher consistently fail when games were at stake and turn potential victories into heartbreaking defeats.

 

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Dhruv Jurel

 

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For ₹14 crore, Dhruv Jurel was RR's riskiest wager, and priciest mistake. The wicketkeeper-batsman's 333 runs in 13 games at 37.00 average was only half the tale; the other half was filled with torturous near-misses and pressure-cooker disappointments that defined RR's season.

 

Jurel's 156.33 strike rate hid a greater problem: his inability to convert promising starts into match-winning efforts. His 70, his career's best, arrived too late to rescue RR from their campaign, representative of a pattern of nearlys and maybes. Having faced 213 balls and scoring two fifties, he kept falling short of putting pedal to metal at the most critical times. For a side that had so badly been lacking finishers, Jurel became the face of expensive potential without championship-winning delivery.

 

Fazalhaq Farooqi

 

Image Source : MSN

 

Fazalhaq Farooqi’s IPL 2025 campaign will go down as one of the most spectacular individual collapses in tournament history. Zero wickets in five matches. The Afghanistan left-armer somehow managed to bowl 102 balls while hemorrhaging 210 runs at an economy rate of 12.35 that defied belief.

 

This wasn’t just poor performance; it was record-breaking futility. Having previously shown promise with SRH (6 wickets in 7 matches across 2022-23), Farooqi’s RR stint became a masterclass in how quickly T20 cricket can humble even established performers. His transformation from reliable operator to liability epitomized everything wrong with RR’s recruitment strategy. When a bowler concedes more than 12 runs per over without taking a single wicket, release becomes inevitable rather than optional.

 

Tushar Deshpande

 

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Chennai Super Kings must be grinning. While RR fought tooth and nail to prise Tushar Deshpande out of the five-time champions, Mumbai-born pacer's sudden fall makes CSK's move to release him appear like masterminded brains and not a momentary lapse of judgement.

 

Deshpande's transformation from CSK's sure-shot operator (38 wickets in 29 innings from 2022-24) to RR's weak link was literally demonstrated by hard facts. His 9 wickets in 10 matches at 37.77 average and 10.62 economy rate was a breathtaking fall from grace. Previously in his CSK days with economy rates below 9, his RR stint had him running average continuously without providing the much-sought-after breaks. For ₹6.5 crore, he was the personification of all that was amiss with RR's recruitment: expensive mediocrity that killed team balance while undermining budget flexibility.

 

Maheesh Theekshana

 

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Maheesh Theekshana's case is RR's biggest dilemma. The 11 wickets from 11 matches and a 9.76 economy rate by the Sri Lankan bowler tell us of competence, and reliability, never calamity. His bowling average of 37.27 and strike rate of 22.90 reveal steady contributions but never match-defining returns.

 

But such competence at ₹4.40 crore could be RR's biggest luxury they can never do without. While his numbers against team-mates appeared reasonable, Theekshana's inability to produce wicket-taking overs in important moments exposed frailties. His limited contribution to batting (10 runs from 4 innings) didn't bring any additional value, and he became depth of the disposable kind rather than irreplaceable asset. RR will likely make their decision on whether they view him as salvage at lower compensation or replaceable commodity shying away from investing in true game-changers.

 

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Conclusion

 

Rajasthan Royals are at cricket's version of the crossroads, where emotion collides with cold hard financial reality. These five releases won't only free up around ₹37 crore, they'll be a testament to RR's determination to cut out costly experiments that brought nothing but despair.

 

The 2025 nightmare of this franchise was born from a basic misperception: potential does not win championships, performance does. Hetmyer's big-hitting reputation, Jurel's defensive skills, and Deshpande's past success all became useless when converted into real match scenarios. At times, the toughest choices are the most essential ones.

 

RR's overhaul requires guts,  the guts to acknowledge errors, trim losses, and rebuild anew. These releases are not just about roster shifts; they're statements of purpose. The Royals have to make a choice between costly familiarity and inexpensive hunger. Their 2026 hopes ride solely on doing just that right.