The Indian Premier League, spectacular as it is, will have its nineteenth edition in 2026. IPL started in 2008, where Rajasthan Royals (RR) tasted fame under the leadership of Shane Warne. However, since then they have only grown closer. Talking about the most successful franchises in the league, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) have won five titles each. Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have won thrice.
The auction for the 2026 season will take place in Abu Dhabi on December 16, and teams have already started their preparations for the tournament, retaining the top draws and even releasing some to improve the squad for the next edition. Although some retentions have not been easy for all ten franchises, there have been a number of names that have left teams scratching their heads, as going with huge sums on the auction table is also extremely important.
The most significant retentions ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction include MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Hardik Pandya (Mumbai Indians), Rishabh Pant (Lucknow Super Giants), Shubman Gill (Gujarat Titans), KL Rahul (Delhi Capitals), Jasprit Bumrah (Mumbai Indians), Nicholls Names like Puran (Lucknow Super Giants), and Shreyas Iyer (Punjab Kings) are included.
Several trades also made headlines, the most prominent of which was the one between CSK and RR as Chennai traded all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan and added Sanju Samson. The all-cash deals that have come out well include the names of Shardul Thakur, Arjun Tendulkar, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford and Mohammed Shami.
Here is the list of retained players, released players and remaining purses for all the teams
List of retained players of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH):
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R Smrana, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins (c), Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari.
List of players released by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH):
Mohammed Shami (traded out), Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa.
IPL 2026: List of players retained and released by LSG
List of retained players of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG):
Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Himmat Singh, Matthew Bretzke, Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Arjun Tendulkar, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohsin Khan, M Siddharth, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh.
List of players released by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG):
Shardul Thakur, David Miller, Aryan Juyal, Yuvraj Choudhary, Rajvardhan Hangarkar, Shamar Joseph, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi
IPL 2026: GT Retained and Released Players List
List of retained players of Gujarat Titans (GT):
Shubman Gill (captain), Sai Sudarshan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Glenn Phillips, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav.
Gujarat Titans (GT) released the list of players:
Dasun Shanaka, Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Sherfane Rutherford (traded out)
IPL 2026: List of players retained and released by PBKS
List of retained players of Punjab Kings (PBKS):
Shreyas Iyer (captain), Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Shashank Singh, Payla Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Musheer Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Johnson, Azmatullah Omarzai, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Vishak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar
List of players released by Punjab Kings (PBKS):
Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dubey
IPL 2026: DC retained and released players list
List of retained players of Delhi Capitals (DC)
Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Abhishek Porel, Axar Patel (captain), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwary, Tripura Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Nitish Rana (trade in).
List of players released by Delhi Capitals (DC):
Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mohit Sharma, Donovan Ferreira, Sediqullah Atal, Manvath Kumar, Darshan Nalkande
List of retained players of Rajasthan Royals (RR):
Dhruv Jurel, Ryan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Shubham Dubey, Luan-Dre Pretorius, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Nandre Berger, Tushar Deshpande, Quena Mafaka, Yudhveer Singh Charak.
List of players released by Rajasthan Royals (RR):
Sanju Samson (traded out), Nitish Rana (traded out), Mahesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Karthikeya, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Kunal Singh Rathore.
List of retained players of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR):
Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakraborty, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik.
List of players released by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR):
Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Moeen Ali, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lavnith Sisodia, Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Mayank Markandey (traded out)
List of retained players of Chennai Super Kings (CSK):
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brewis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Sanju Samson (traded in), Shivam Dubey, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmed, Khalil Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj Gurjapaneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary.
List of players released by Chennai Super Kings (CSK):
Ravindra Jadeja (traded out), Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Mathisha Pathirana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sam Curran (traded out), Sheikh Rashid, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Andre Siddharth, Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi.
List of retained players of Mumbai Indians (MI):
Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Robin Minze, Ryan Rickelton, Hardik Pandya (captain), Naman Dheer, Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, Corbyn Bosch, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Ashwini Kumar, Raghu Sharma, AM Ghazanfar, Shardul Thakur (trade in), Sherfane Rutherford (trade in), Mayank Markande (trade in)
List of players released by Mumbai Indians (MI):
Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Srijit, Karn Sharma, Bevon Jacobs, Mustafizur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur, Arjun Tendulkar (traded out)
IPL 2026: List of players retained and released by RCB
List of retained players of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB):
Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethel, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salaam, Abhinandan Singh, Suyyash Sharma.
List of players released by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB):
Liam Livingstone, Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathi
Team-wise purses and RTM ahead of IPL 2026 auction
| teams | Balance Purse (INR) | Maintained | Issued |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) | 25.50 crores | 15 | 8 |
| Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) | 22.95 crores | 19 | 8 |
| Punjab Kings (PBKS) | 11.50 crores | 21 | 5 |
| Gujarat Titans (GT) | 12.9 crores | 20 | 6 |
| Delhi Capitals (DC) | 21.80 crores | 17 | 7 |
| Rajasthan Royals (RR) | 16.05 crores | 16 | 9 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) | 64.3 crores | 12 | 10 |
| Chennai Super Kings (CSK) | 43.4 crores | 16 | 12 |
| Mumbai Indians (MI) | 2.75 crores | 20 | 9 |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) | 16.4 crores | 17 | 8 |
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