With IPL 2026 a few months away, all franchises have started to gear up for the new season. The first thing on their agenda will be to strengthen their squads in the mini auction ahead of the next editions.
Before that, all IPL teams have revealed their player retentions and are now set to chalk out their auction strategies.
Here you can find out the players retained, released, and traded by all IPL teams ahead of the 2026 auction.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
The big news from the CSK camp has been Ravindra Jadeja’s trade to Rajasthan Royals (RR). The positive, though, has been MS Dhoni, who has made himself available for yet another season.
Matheesha Pathirana heads the list of released players, which also includes Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra.
Players Retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, MS Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis.
Players Released: Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddarth, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Matheesha Pathirana, Ravichandran Ashwin.
Players Traded in: Sanju Samson (from RR)
Players Traded Out: Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran (to RR)
CSK Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 43.40 crore.
Delhi Capitals (DC)
Except for a few notable players, DC have retained most of their last edition’s squad. Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, and Mohit Sharma are the notable absentees from the 2025 squad.
There were trade talks of KL Rahul and Tristan Stubbs, though none of them panned out at the end. DC, however, traded in Nitish Rana in exchange for Donovan Ferreira to RR.
Players Retained: Axar Patel (c), KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera.
Players Released: Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande.
Players Traded in: Nitish Rana (from RR)
Players Traded Out: Donovan Ferreira (to RR)
DC Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 21.80 crore.
Gujarat Titans (GT)
GT haven’t made any major releases. Their core squad remains intact, though they traded out Sherfane Rutherford to Mumbai Indians (MI).
Players Retained: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav
Players Released: Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Dasun Shanaka, Gerald Coetzee, and Kulwant Khejroliya.
Players Traded Out: Sherfane Rutherford (to MI)
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
KKR have had a major shakeup ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. They have let go of 10 players, including Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, and Quinton de Kock.
Releasing Venkatesh and Russell has freed up a big chunk of their purse. While Russell’s exclusion has left many surprised, there’s a high chance KKR might bid for him, though at a lower price.
Players Retained: Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakravarthy, Ramandeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Umran Malik, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora.
Players Released: Andre Russell, Luvnith Sisodia, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Spencer Johnson, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Moeen Ali, Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje.
Players Traded Out: Mayank Markande (to MI)
KKR Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 64.30 crore.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)
David Miller, Akash Deep and Shamar Joseph are the notable releases from LSG. They have bolstered their pace attack by trading in Mohammed Shami and Arjun Tendulkar.
Players Retained: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (c), Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh.
Players Released: Aryan Juyal, David Miller, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Will O’Rourke, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph.
Players Traded in: Mohammed Shami (from SRH), Arjun Tendulkar (from MI)
Players Traded Out: Shardul Thakur (to MI)
LSG Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 22.95 crore.
Mumbai Indians (MI)
MI have stuck to their previous season’s combination. They have further solidified their squad by trading in Sherfane Rutherford, Shardul Thakur, and Mayank Markande.
Markande’s successful trade meant they left out Afghanistan’s Mujeeb ur Rahman and Karan Sharma. Vignesh Puthur, who showed promise last season, has also been released.
Players Retained: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Raj Bawa, Raghu Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickleton, Robin Minz, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Allah Ghafanzar, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks.
Players Released: Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Shrijith, Karn Sharma, Bevon Jacobs, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, and Vignesh Puthur.
Players Traded in: Sherfane Rutherford (from GT), Mayank Markande (from KKR), Shardul Thakur (from LSG).
Players Traded Out: Arjun Tendulkar (to LSG).
MI Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 2.75 crore.
Punjab Kings (PBKS)
PBKS had the most sorted retentions. They haven’t tinkered a lot with their last season’s squad, which ended up as the runner-up.
The only notable change has been Glenn Maxwell’s release, who had an average outing for them last season. He is among a group of a few players who have been let go by the franchise.
Players Retained: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyala Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod.
Players Released: Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Praveen Dubey, Kyle Jamieson, Kuldeep Sen.
PBKS Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 11.50 crore.
Rajasthan Royals (RR)
Sanju Samson’s trade to CSK hogged the limelight in RR’s retentions for the IPL 2026. In return, they’ve got Ravindra Jadeja, who will have a homecoming of sorts, having represented the franchise in the first two IPL editions.
RR have released their Sri Lankan spinners, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, along with Afghanistan’s pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Players Retained: Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger.
Players Released: Wanindu Hasaranga, Kumar Kartikeya, Ashok Sharma, Kunal Singh Rathore, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal and Maheesh Theekshana.
Players Traded in: Ravindra Jadeja (from CSK), Sam Curran (from CSK), Donovan Ferreira (from DC).
Players Traded Out: Sanju Samson (to CSK), Nitish Rana (to DC).
RR Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 16.05 crore.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)
Liam Livingstone heads the released players list of the current IPL champions, RCB. They have also let go of local boy Mayank Agarwal, who had joined them last year as a replacement.
Players Retained: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma.
Players Released: Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathee.
RCB Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 16.40 crore
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
There were talks around SRH not retaining Heinrich Klaasen. But those talks have been put to rest with his name present on their retention list. SRH, though, have let go of their wrist spinners in Adam Zampa and Rahul Chahar.
Players Retained: Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R. Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari.
Players Released: Adam Zampa, Rahul Chahar, Simarjeet Singh, Wiaan Mulder, Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, and Sachin Baby.
Players Traded Out: Mohammed Shami (to LSG).
SRH Purse Available for IPL 2026 Auction: INR 25.50 crore.
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