File photo of Cameron Green© BCCI
The IPL 2026 retention list is out. Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are expected to trigger intense bidding wars with the best purses among the 10 teams at next month’s mini IPL auction, to be held in Abu Dhabi on December 16. KKR enter the auction with a purse of Rs 63.4 crore after releasing major non-performing assets in Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 23.75 crore) and Andre Russell (Rs 12 crore), while CSK, despite trading Sanju Samson, have freed up Rs 40 crore by letting go of a host of players.
Former India player Mohammad Kaif mentioned that the move to release Russell – who won the IPL MVP award in 2015 and 2019 and had been a central figure for KKR since joining the franchise in 2014 – was a wrong one. He also mentioned Cameron Green’s name, the Australian whom many experts have predicted to get the highest bid at the IPL 2026 auction.
“Russell’s release is not right,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel. “You had him at Rs 12 crore and that is not a big amount really for a player like him. He is a once-in-a-generation player. Yes, he was out of form, but later on he scored runs too. But as coaches change, they bring some changes. I think this was a big call. You can say he was not at his peak, but I feel this is such a format, especially in the IPL, where experienced players do well and there are many examples. I feel the straight answer to his release is Abhishek Nayar. He wants to make his own team now. But this was an astonishing call.”
“The quality and power that Russell has, even four players like Cameron Green cannot cover that. The way he plays, he can hit 100m sixes at will and he has won them so many games from situations where the game seemed lost. He got that respect because of this ability. There are very few players like him at number seven. If you play Green at seven, he cannot score even half the runs of Russell – he bats up the order. I feel they should buy Russell back,” added Kaif.
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