Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises will have until November 15 to finalise the list of retained and released players ahead of the IPL 2026 mini-auction,
set to take place later this year.
A few weeks ago, reports suggested that Delhi Capitals (DC) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) were looking to trade KL Rahul and Sanju Samson, respectively, to other teams ahead of the mini-auction. Fans began speculating which team will rope in the two wicketkeeper-batters who can also serve as captains.
However, latest reports suggest that Rahul is all set to be retained by the Capitals. Samson, on the other hand, has reportedly told the Royals that he wants to face fresh challenges after spending 11 seasons with the inaugural champions in two different spells.
As per reports, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) could be Samson's next destination, as the five-time champions could be handing Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to the Royals in exchange.
There have some very interesting player trades over the years in the IPL. Let's take a look at the biggest IPL swap deals below.
Here’s the list IPL player trade and swap deals in the tournament’s history:
| Year | Player | From | To | Notes |
| 2009 | Zaheer Khan | RCB | MI | Swap deal with Robin Uthappa |
| 2009 | Ashish Nehra | DD | MI | Swap deal with Shikhar Dhawan |
| 2012 | Dinesh Karthik | KXIP | MI | Sum undisclosed; Swap deal with R Sathish |
| 2012 | Pragyan Ojha | Chargers | MI | Undisclosed sum |
| 2012 | Kevin Pietersen | Chargers | DD | |
| 2013 | Ashish Nehra | PWI | DD | Swap deal with Ross Taylor |
| 2015 | Parthiv Patel | RCB | MI | Swap deal with Manvinder Bisla |
| 2016 | KL Rahul | SRH | RCB | |
| 2019 | Quinton de Kock | RCB | MI | Rs 2.8 crore |
| 2019 | Marcus Stoinis | KXIP | RCB | Rs 6.2 crore; Swap deal with Mandeep Singh |
| 2019 | Shikhar Dhawan | SRH | Capitals | Rs 5.2 crore; Swap deal with Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar |
| 2020 | R Ashwin | KXIP | Capitals | Rs 7.6 crore; Swap deal with J Suchith |
| 2020 | Trent Boult | Capitals | MI | Undisclosed Sum |
| 2020 | Ajinkya Rahane | RR | Capitals | Rs 5.25 crore; Swap deal with Mayank Markande, Rahul Tewatia |
| 2021 | Harshal Patel | Capitals | RCB | |
| 2022 | Lockie Ferguson | GT | KKR | Rs 10 crore |
| 2022 | Shardul Thakur | Capitals | KKR | Rs 10.75 crore |
| 2024 | Avesh Khan | LSG | RR | Rs 10 crore; Swap deal with Devdutt Padikkal |
| 2024 | Hardik Pandya | GT | MI | Rs 15 crore |
| 2024 | Cameron Green | MI | RCB | Rs 17.5 crore |
