Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had an outstanding season in IPL 2025 as they finally ended their 17-year-wait to lift the trophy. From the batting department to all-rounders and the bowling, the team was largely successful in all quarters and will be one happy unit who wouldn’t want to make a lot of changes before the next edition of the tournament. However, the team could afford to make some amends by releasing a few players who weren’t quite used in the previous season. With November 15 being the deadline for the teams to finalize retentions before the IPL 2026 mini-auction, let’s take a look at some of the players that RCB can afford to let go of.
3 players RCB should release before IPL 2026
1. Liam Livingstone
On top of the list of players that RCB should release is the England all-rounder. In 10 matches, he only managed to score 112 runs, averaging just 16 with the bat. He wasn’t too useful with the ball either, having managed to pick up just two wickets in the 5 innings that he got to bowl in. After being bought for a whooping Rs 8.75 crore. Livingstone was truly a let down for the RCB. Releasing him would surely help RCB free their purse and perhaps target another genuine all-rounder like Cameron Green.
2. Blessing Muzarabani
The Zimbabwean pacer was signed as a replacement for Lungi Ngidi for his base price of Rs 75 lakh. The South African pacer was forced to miss the playoffs stage due to national duties, thus paving way for Muzarabani to join the RCB squad. However, the ZIM star wasn’t used for a single game. Considering that he was just a stop-gap arrangement in the absence of Ngidi, RCB might as well release him ahead of the IPL 2026 auction.
3. Mayank Agarwal
The Karnataka batter made his return to RCB as he was signed as an injury replacement for Devdutt Padikkal. However, he managed to score just 95 runs in 5 matches in IPL 2025, failing to fill in the shoes of DDP adequately. With Padikkal set to return next year, RCB by no means need Mayank in their squad and could rather add an extra Rs 1 crore to their auction purse by releasing him.
RCB squad
Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethel, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.
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