IPL 2026

The countdown for the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction is on. A total of 350 cricketers will go under the hammer on December 16 in Abu Dhabi at the Etihad Arena. A total of 1390 players had registered for the IPL 2026 auction. Furthermore, the BCCI had pruned down the list for 77 vacant slots to fill.

Forty players have chosen to be in the ₹2 crore bracket going into the IPL 2026 auction, while 42 cricketers have listed themselves for a base price of ₹75 lakh. Venkatesh Iyer and Ravi Bishnoi are the only Indians with the highest base price of ₹2 crore.

A total of 173 players have been retained by the 10 franchises, which include 49 overseas cricketers. Punjab Kings retained the largest number of players (21), while Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans have kept 20 of their players from last season.

Heading into the IPL 2026 auction, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will enter with the highest purse of ₹64.30 crore, while Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are going with the second-highest purse of ₹43.40 crore. Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the defending champions of IPL.

Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja among biggest trades

Ahead of IPL 2026 Retentions, Sanju Samson and Ravindra Jadeja grabbed headlines with the two players swapping their jerseys before the new season. While Samson will now represent CSK in IPL 2026, Jadeja returned to his former team Rajasthan Royals. A total of 8 players were traded.

Lucknow Super Giants have roped in Arjun Tendulkar and Mohammed Shami from Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively, as part of trade deals.

Retained players by all franchises before IPL 2026 auction

Chennai Super Kings: Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Jamie Overton, MS Dhoni, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Noor Ahmad, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Sanju Samson (T), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel.

Delhi Capitals: Abhishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar, Nitish Rana (T), Sameer Rizvi, T. Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam.

Gujarat Titans: Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Jos Buttler, Kagiso Rabada, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Mohammad Siraj, Mohd. Arshad Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Prasidh Krishna, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy

Lucknow Super Giants: Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar (T), Arshin Kulkarni, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke, Mayank Yadav, Md Shami (T), Mitchell Marsh, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Prince Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Ahmed

Mumbai Indians: Allah Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande (T), Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Shardul Thakur (T), Sherfane Rutherford (T), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Trent Boult, Will Jacks

Punjab Kings: Arshdeep Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Harpreet Brar, Lockie Ferguson, Marco Jansen, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Owen, Musheer Khan, Nehal Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal

Rajasthan Royals: Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira (T), Jofra Archer, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-Dre Pretorious, Nandre Burger, Ravindra Jadeja (T), Riyan Parag, Sam Curran (T), Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashaswi Jaiswal, Yudhvir Charak

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Abhinandan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Devdutt Padikkal, Jacob Bethell, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya, Nuwan Thushara, Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar, Rasikh Dar, Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins, Smaran Ravichandaran, Travis Head, Zeeshan Ansari