Washington Sundar and KL Rahul to join new franchises ahead of IPL 2026? Report provides crucial update

Though there have been a lot of rumours regarding Washington Sundar and KL Rahul's future in the IPL, it seems that both of them will not be joining any new franchises before the next season. Notably, Sundar has been heavily linked with a move to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) while Rahul has been rumoured to join the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). However, a report by Cricbuzz has ruled out both the moves.

With Ravichandran Ashwin departing from CSK, the franchise had indeed explored the move of Sundar, who could have been a great replacement for the former. However, Gujarat Titans head coach Ashish Nehra has made it clear that the all-rounder is not available for trade. The report stated that the Chennai-based franchise were told about Nehra's decision long before Sundar played the match-winning knock of 49 runs against Australia in the 3rd T20I.

Sundar's rise in international cricket

Sundar, who was signed by GT for a fee of INR 3.2 crore during the IPL 2025 mega-auction last year, only played six matches for the team throughout the season. But, he has since become an all-format player for India and has impressed in both the batting and bowling departments. He can turn out to play quite a lot of games for the Gujarat-based franchise next season.

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On the other hand, Rahul has also been rumoured to leave the Delhi Capitals (DC) after just one season and join KKR. Though there wasn't much opportunity for trade talks from the get-go, the rumours started gaining traction after Sanju Samson was recently linked to a trade with DC in exchange for both Tristan Stubbs and Sameer Rizvi.

KKR want to bring in top wicketkeeper-batter

According to the Cricbuzz report, KKR are interested in signing a top-class wicketkeeper-batter and that is why they were rumoured to sign Samson earlier as well. However, with the Kolkata-based franchise reportedly not willing to trade key players like Varun Chakravarthy and Rinku Singh for a potential swap, the deal with Rahul is likely to not take place even if Samson goes on to leave Rajasthan Royals and join DC before the next IPL season.