On Saturday, November 15, all the 10 teams confirmed their retained and released players apart from some of the trade deals ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season, which is expected to begin
in March of next year. The announcement is critical for the teams to start rebuilding their player roster for the next season and it will also serve as a precursor to the IPL 2026 auction reportedly slated to happen on December 16 in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) traded leg spinner Mayank Markande to Mumbai Indians (MI) before their retentions for the IPL 2026 were revealed. They released their star player Andre Russell in one of the biggest surprises ahead of the mega auction apart from parting ways with Venkatesh Iyer, who was with them on a big money contract.
List of retained and released players for Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of IPL 2026 auction
Retained players: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik
Released players: Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Moeen Ali, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Mayank Markande (Trade out), Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson
