Washington Sundar struggled to find a spot in the Gujarat Titans playing XI but the franchise remain keen to retain him ahead of IPL 2026 retention deadline

Washington Sundar's heroics in Hobart only re-enforced Gujarat Titans' decision to retain him ahead of the IPL 2026 Auction. Sundar scored an unbeaten 49 to guide India to a series levelling win on Sunday in Australia. The young all-rounder has been linked with a switch to Chennai Super Kings in recent months, but Titans have refused all trade links.

As per Cricbuzz, Gujarat Titans have not entertained a trade offer Washington Sundar. Chennai Super Kings were interested in bringing the Tamil Nadu all-rounder to Chennai ahead of IPL 2026. He would have served as a perfect replacement for Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired in September.

However, Gujarat Titans were never interested in trading their valuable asset. Sundar was bought for only 3.2 crore, and played only 6 games last season. He has since seen a massive upward curve in his career, becoming an all-format regular.

It marks yet another trade that Chennai have failed to pull of this season. CSK's pursuit of Sanju Samson is well known, but the five-time champions eventually decided against it.

Interest in Samson is high from Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders. A deal for Samson in exchange for Tristan Stubbs and Sameer Rizvi was rumoured to be in the works, but nothing concrete has materialised.

KKR are in search of a Indian wicket-keeping option given their lack of success with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Quinton de Kock. Samson, alongside Delhi's KL Rahul fit the bill, but negotiations have been tough. The 3-time champions are unwilling to trade out their star players in Rinku Singh and Varun Chakravarthy, leading to an impasse in talks.

Franchises have until November 15 to submit their retained squads. Samson has made it clear he wants to leave the Royals, putting Rajasthan in a race against time.