IPL 2026 Retentions Live Updates: 173 players retained, 77 slots await blockbuster December 16 auction in Abu Dhabi

Mark your calendars! The IPL 2026 Player Auction will be held on 16th December 2025 at the iconic Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, the first time the IPL mega auction is heading to the UAE.

The player retention window for IPL 2025 slammed shut on November 15, 2025, with all 10 franchises submitting their final lists. A total of 173 players have been retained across the league, including 49 overseas stars. That leaves 77 slots open for the auction, with a massive combined auction purse of ₹237.55 crore up for grabs.

Englishman Lian Livingstone bid goodbye with a message for the fans

Full list of players released and retained

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.

Released: Lucknow Super Giants: Aryan Juyal, David Miller, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph

Released: Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddarth, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Sam Curran (trade), Ravindra Jadeja (trade), Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Matheesha Pathirana

Retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, M.S. 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.

Retained: Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav

Released: Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Sediqullah Atal, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Manvanth Kumar, Darshan Nalkande

Retained players

1. AM Ghazanfar

2. Ashwani Kumar

3. Corbin Bosch

4. Deepak Chahar

5. Hardik Pandya

6. Jasprit Bumrah

7. Mayank Markande (Trade In)

8. Mitchell Santner

9. Naman Dhir

10. Raghu Sharma

11. Raj Angad Bawa

12. Robin Minz

13. Rohit Sharma

14. Ryan Rickelton

15. Shardul Thakur (Trade In)

16. Sherfane Rutherford (Trade In)

17. Suryakumar Yadav

18. Tilak Varma

19. Trent Boult

20. Will Jacks

Released players

1. Bevon Jacobs

2. Karn Sharma

3. KL Shrijith

4. Lizaad Williams

5. Mujeeb Ur Rahman

6. PSN Raju

7. Reece Topley

8. Vignesh Puthur

Trade out

1. Arjun Tendulkar

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

Available Slots: 13 (including 6 Overseas slots)

Available Purse: ₹ 64.3 Crore.

Here comes the first list officially. Gujarat Titans have released Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Dasun Shanaka and Mahipal Lomror. They have retained Shubman Gill (captain), Rashid Khan, Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Jos Buttler, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Nishant Sindhu, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Manav Suthar, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Brar, Sai Kishore, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Glenn Phillips.

2022 champions Gujarat Titans have released the likes of Gerald Coetzee, Karim Janat and Dasun Shanaka, Mahipal Lomror, Kulwant Khejroliya while trading Sherfane Rutherford to Mumbai Indians.

Huge shakeup at SRH camp. They have released Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa as do Mohammed Shami, Simarjeet Singh, Wiaan Mulder, Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, and Sachin Baby.

Mumbai Indians release four overseas players as none of them were regulars - Lizaad Williams, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Bevon Jacobs and Reece Topley.

Probably the biggest release of the evening. Three-time champions KKR are all set to release West Indies stalwart Andre Russell, according to a Cricinco report. Russell has been a pillar for KKR since IPL 2014 and was among the five players retained by the franchise ahead of IPL 2025 mega auction for ₹12 crore. Releasing Russell will free up the purse for KKR.

Mumbai Indians are all set to retain Will Jacks. The Englishman had scored 233 runs in 13 matches last season at a strike rate of 130-plus.

Delhi Capitals set to retain T Natarajan ahead of the IPL 2026 retentions.

Punjab Kings have decided to release Josh Inglis ahead of IPL 2026 auction. The Australian played 11 games for the franchise in the last edition.

LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka welcomes Mohammed Shami in his own style

After buying Venkatesh Iyer for ₹23-plus crore, KKR CEO Venky Mysore had said in an interview, “We don't buy players to sell him next year and buy them cheap.” However, rumours are around that Iyer might get released today.

Sanju Samson's emotional post for Rajasthan Royals. "We are only here for a short period of time. Gave MY everything to this franchise, enjoyed some great cricket, made some lifetime relations, treated everyone in the franchise as my family..And when its time..I AM moving On..Shall always be grateful for everything @rajasthanroyals," Samson wrote.

Who will lead Rajasthan Royals in the absence of Sanju Samson? Is is Ravindra Jadeja? Do Rajasthan Royals have any captaincy option in their squad?

Arjun Tendulkar bids emotional goodbye to Mumbai Indians. “@mumbaiindians, thank you for the memories. It’s been an honour wearing the badge and being part of the team. Can’t wait to join @lucknowsupergiants, see you soon,” said Arjun.

In case you have missed on the list of players traded ahead of IPL 2026 auction, here's a quick recap for you.

With Ricky Ponting at helm, Punjab Kings are likely to retain the overseas core which include Marcus Stoinis, Lockie Ferguson, Marco Jansen, Josh Inglis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Xavier Bartlett and Mitchell Owen. Stay tuned for updates.

In a mini auction there is no limit on retention and release of players. All the franchises must have a maximum of 25 players in their squad. The purse for each franchise will be around ₹120 crores.

We are just few minutes away from the IPL 2026 retention deadline. Stay tuned for all the updates.

Ajinkya Rahane might be retained by KKR. After their trade deal for KL Rahul fell through, Rahane's strong leadership and calm nature will earn him another season at KKR.

All the 10 franchises will get time till 3 PM IST to submit their final list of retained and released players to the BCCI.

After trading out Mohammed Shami, SHR are likely to release South African Heinrich Klassen amongst big names. Klaasen has been a big flop last season. The 2016 champions are expected to retain Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy among notable ones.

KKR are also likely to release as many as seven players, including ₹23.75 crore buy Venkatesh Iyer. Apart from Iyer, the likes of Moeen Ali, Luvnith Sisodia, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Chetan Sakariya, Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje are likely on KKR's release list.

After trading Ravindra Jadeja, CSK are set to release Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana, whom they had retained for ₹13 crores last time. Frequent injuries has left Pathirana in an out of action in the past year and was forced to rethink his bowling action which cost him some of his effectiveness. Pathirana took 13 wickets in 12 games in IPL 2025.

The IPL 2026 player auction is likely to take place between December 13 to 16, mostly in Abu Dhabi as per reports. The IPL auction last year was held in Saudi Arabia.

Star Sports is the official broadcasting partner of the Indian Premier League. The IPL 2026 retention will be telecast live on Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 (Hindi), Star Sports 2 (Tamil), Star Sports 2 (Telugu) and Star Sports 2 (Malayalam) from 5 PM IST. Live streaming of IPL 2026 retention will be available on the JioStar app and website.

If rumours are to be believed, Punjab Kings are set to release Glenn Maxwell. The Australian has underperformed last season and is also not doing consistently for his national team as well in recent times.

Along with Arjun Tendulkar, LSG also bolstered their pacer attack with the addition of Mohammed Shami from Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Indian pacer joins LSG for his existing fee of ₹10 crore.

Devon Conway bids goodbye to CSK after three seasons. The New Zealander was a the player of the match in the 2023 IPL final which CSK won.

On the day when Delhi Capitals announced Nitish Rana via a trade deal with Rajasthan Royals, the franchise are likely to release the South African Faf du Plessis. Along with Faf, Delhi Capitals are also expected to release Harry Brook. The England ODI skipper was bought for ₹6.25 crore last year but opted out before the tournament began. It is learnt that Delhi Capitals might also release Mohit Sharma and Jake Fraser-McGurk.

"Rajasthan Royals gave me my first platform and my first taste of victory. Coming back feels special - it's not just a team for me, it's home. Rajasthan Royals is where I won my first IPL, and I hope to win more with this current group of players," said Ravindra Jadeja.

One of the highlights of the trade is Arjun Tendulkar leaving Mumbai Indians. Son of legendary Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun has been with the Mumbai Indians for the past few seasons, but got to play a very few matches. At LSG, Arjun will get to game time as he expects.

Ravindra Jadeja - Chennai Super Kings to Rajasthan Royals ( ₹14 crore)

Sam Curran - Chennai Super Kings to Rajasthan Royals ( ₹2.4 crore)

Sanju Samson - Rajasthan Royals to Chennai Super Kings ( ₹18 crore)

Mohammed Shami - Sunrisers Hyderabad to Lucknow Super Giants ( ₹10 crore)

Mayank Markande - Kolkata Knight Riders to Mumbai Indians ( ₹30 lakh)

Arjun Tendulkar - Mumbai Indians to Lucknow Super Giants ( ₹30 lakh)

Nitish Rana - Rajasthan Royals to Delhi Capitals ( ₹4.2 crore)

Donovan Ferreira - Delhi Capitals to Rajasthan Royals ( ₹1 crore)

Shardul Thakur - Lucknow Super Giants to Mumbai Indians ( ₹2 crore)

Sherfane Rutherford - Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians ( ₹2.6 crore)

While the CSK-RR trade deal was doing the rounds for a few days recently, the IPL confirmed on Saturday morning that Sanju Samson and Ravindra Jadeja have switched their bases for the upcoming season.

Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the IPL 2026 retention.