The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 is still over four months away but the craze among the fans for the new season of arguably the greatest franchise T20 tournament in the world has built up already.
In a major development, the IPL 2026 auction is reportedly set to take place in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on December 16, where all the 10 teams will get the opportunity to put together their player roster for the upcoming campaign next year.
Notably, all the IPL teams are currently in the midst of retaining and releasing their players from last season, with the deadline set for November 15, to give themselves the best chance to upgrade their player roster for the 2026 season. As far as the venues of the IPL auction goes, the last couple of years it was held overseas in Dubai, the UAE, in 2023 and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2024.
IPL 2026 Auction to go down in overseas country for third straight time due to logistics
The report from Sportstar, who broke the news about the IPL 2026 auction date and venue, also stated that the BCCI officials made the decision to host it for the third straight year in an overseas country due to logistical considerations. Many were expecting the auction to return to India after three long years but that won’t be the case this time around.
After the retained and released players are announced by all the 10 IPL franchises ahead of the 2026 season, the next stop for them will be the auction in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will have the tough task in the IPL 2026 to retain their title, which is something done only twice in tournament history by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI), who have won it for a record five times each.
