The Indian Premier League, for the spectacle it is, will see its nineteenth edition take place in 2026. The IPL started in 2008 where Rajasthan Royals (RR), led by Shane Warne, tasted glory. However, they
have only come close since then. Speaking of the most successful franchises in the league, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) have won five titles each. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), meanwhile, have won thrice.
The auction for the 2026 season will be held on December 16 in Abu Dhabi, and the teams have already started their preparations for the tournament, by retaining the top draws while also releasing a few to make the squad better for the next edition. While a few retentions have been no-brainers for all the ten franchises, there have been several names that have made the sides scratch their heads, as going with a hefty kitty at the auction table is also extremely important.
The most significant retentions ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction include names like 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), Nicholas Pooran (Lucknow Super Giants), and Shreyas Iyer (Punjab Kings) among others.
Several trades have also made headlines, with the most prominent being the one between CSK and RR, as Chennai swept in Sanju Samson by giving away all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan. All-cash deals that have surfaced well include the ones of Shardul Thakur, Arjun Tendulkar, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, and Mohammed Shami, to name a few.
Here's the list of retained players, released players and purse remaining for all teams
IPL 2026: SRH Retained and Released Player List
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Retained Players List:
Travis Head, Aniket Verma, R Smaran, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Brydon Carse, Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Eshan Malinga, Javdev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Released Player List:
Mohammed Shami, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Abhinav Manohar, Adam Zampa, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder
IPL 2026: LSG Retained and Released Player List
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Retained Players List:
Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Himmat Singh, Matthew Breetzke, 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
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Released Player List:
Shardul Thakur, David Miller, Aryan Juyal, Yuvraj Choudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shamar Joseph, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi
IPL 2026: GT Retained and Released Player List
Gujarat Titans (GT) Retained Players List:
Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav
Gujarat Titans (GT) Released Player List:
Sherfane Rutherford, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Karim Janat, Dasun Shanaka, Mahpal Lomror
IPL 2026: PBKS Retained and Released Player List
Punjab Kings (PBKS) Retained Players List:
Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Hurnoor Pannu, Musheer Khan, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Lockie Ferguson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett,
Punjab Kings (PBKS) Released Player List:
Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen, Kyle Jamieson, Pravin Dubey
IPL 2026: DC Retained and Released Player List
Delhi Capitals (DC) Retained Players List
Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Nikunj, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, T Natarajan
Delhi Capitals (DC) Released Player List:
Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mohit Sharma, Donovan Ferreira
IPL 2026: RR Retained and Released Player List
Rajasthan Royals (RR) Retained Players List:
Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Shubham Dubey, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Yudhvir Singh Charak,
Rajasthan Royals (RR) Released Player List:
Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi
IPL 2026: KKR Retained and Released Player List
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Retained Players List:
Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Released Player List:
Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Luvnith Sisodia, Moeen Ali, Spencer Johnson, Chetan Sakariya, Mayank Markande, Andre Russell, Anrich Nortje
IPL 2026: CSK Retained and Released Player List
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Retained Players List:
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Released Player List:
Ravindra Jadeja, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Matheesha Pathirana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sam Curran, Shaik Rasheed, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Andre Siddarth, Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi
IPL 2026: MI Retained and Released Player List
Mumbai Indians (MI) Retained Players List:
Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Shardul Thakur (trade), Sherfane Rutherford (trade), Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, AM Ghazanfar, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch
Mumbai Indians (MI) Released Player List:
Arjun Tendulkar, Sathyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Shrijith, Karn Sharma, Bevon Jacobs, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur
IPL 2026: RCB Retained and Released Player List
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Retained Players List:
Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam Dar, Suyash Sharma, Yash Dayal, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Released Player List:
Lungi Ngidi, Mohit Rathee, Manoj Bhandage, Liam Livingstone, Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal
Team-wise Purse and RTMs ahead of IPL 2026 Auctions
| Teams | Purse Remaining (INR) | Retained | Released |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) | 25.50 crore | 15 | 8 |
| Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) | 22.95 crore | 19 | 8 |
| Punjab Kings (PBKS) | 11.50 crore | 19 | 6 |
| Gujarat Titans (GT) | 12.9 crore | 19 | 6 |
| Delhi Capitals (DC) | 21.80 crore | 16 | 4 |
| Rajasthan Royals (RR) | 16.05 crore | 17 | 8 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) | 64.3 crore | 12 | 10 |
| Chennai Super Kings (CSK) | 43.4 crore | 16 | 12 |
| Mumbai Indians (MI) | 2.75 crore | 18 | 9 |
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) | 16.4 crore | 17 | 6 |
