After the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises confirmed the list of retained and released players on Saturday, November 15, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday, November 16 announced
the highly-anticipated IPL 2026 mini-auction date. After the reports hit the roof of the auction being held sometime between December 14 to 16 in Abu Dhabi, the BCCI revealed that the mini-auction will be held on December 16.
Like the last two auctions, this time the auction will be held overseas in the gulf region. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena has been picked as the venue for the event, which will be held on December 16. This comes after 173 players were retained among the ten franchises, leaving 77 slots available, including 31 overseas option ahead of the IPL 2026 edition.
77 slots available after IPL franchises retain 173 players ahead of IPl 2026 mini-auction
Speaking of the IPL 2026 auction, three-time champions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will enter with the largest purse of INR 64.3 Crore. They have 13 spots available including six overseas options. Apart from here, Chennai Super Kings hold the second largest budget of INR 43.4 Crore and have nine slots available after they saw one of the biggest trade deal which saw Sanju Samson join CSK in a swap deal involving Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan Royals (RR).
|
IPL 2026/ Squad Size/Salary Cap/Available Slots |
||||||
|
Franchise |
No of Players |
No of Overseas Players |
Total money spent (Rs.) |
Salary cap available (Rs.) |
Available Slots |
Overseas Slots |
|
CSK |
16 |
4 |
81.6 |
43.4 |
9 |
4 |
|
DC |
17 |
3 |
103.2 |
21.8 |
8 |
5 |
|
GT |
20 |
4 |
112.1 |
12.9 |
5 |
4 |
|
KKR |
12 |
2 |
60.7 |
64.3 |
13 |
6 |
|
LSG |
19 |
4 |
102.05 |
22.95 |
6 |
4 |
|
MI |
20 |
7 |
122.25 |
2.75 |
5 |
1 |
|
PBKS |
21 |
6 |
113.5 |
11.5 |
4 |
2 |
|
RCB |
17 |
6 |
108.6 |
16.4 |
8 |
2 |
|
RR |
16 |
7 |
108.95 |
16.05 |
9 |
1 |
|
SRH |
15 |
6 |
99.5 |
25.5 |
10 |
2 |
|
Total |
173 |
49 |
1012.45 |
237.55 |
77 |
31 |
