The player auction for the IPL 2026 is only a few months away, and it is expected that it will take place in Late November or December. After the IPL 2025 final, the league is in the window trading phase. However, in the last three months or so, no player trade has taken place. In the next three months, the fans will know what their favorite team will look like before the IPL 2026.
IPL Retention Players 2026 List: Team-wise
Unlike the 2025 auction, the 2026 player auction will see teams looking to fill the gaping holes rather than going for every player available in the auction. The top teams in the 2025 are expected to retain most of their players while some teams would look to rejig their players.
| Team | Retained Players |
|---|---|
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) | Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, Swastik Chhikara, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee |
| Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) | Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Mayank Markande, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Luvnith Sisodia (wk), Anukul Roy, Chetan Sakariya, |
| Delhi Capitals (DC) | Faf du Plessis, Ashutosh Sharma, Tripurana Vijay, Vipraj Nigam, Axar Patel, Darshan Nalkande, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Manvanth Kumar L, Madhav Tiwari, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Donovan Ferreira, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar |
| Punjab Kings (PBKS) | Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Marco Jansen, Josh Inglis, Lockie Ferguson, Harnoor Pannu, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Pyla Avinash, Pravin Dubey |
| Rajasthan Royals (RR) | Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Kumar Kartikeya, Nitish Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kwena Maphaka, Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) | Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Reddy, Travis Head, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa, Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Aniket Verma, Eshan Malinga, |
| Chennai Super Kings (CSK) | Ruturaj Gaikwad, Matheesha Pathirana, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Rahul Tripathi, Rachin Ravindra, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad, Shaik Rasheed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Vansh Bedi, Andre Siddarth |
| Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) | Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Ayush Badoni, Rishabh Pant, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, Aryan Juyal, Akash Deep, Himmat Singh, M. Siddharth, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Singh, Prince Yadav, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Arshin Kulkarni, Matthew Breetzke |
| Gujarat Titans (GT) | Rashid Khan, Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Jos Buttler, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Nishant Sindhu, Mahipal Lomror, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Manav Suthar, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Brar, Sherfane Rutherford, Sai Kishore, Kulwant Khejroliya |
| Mumbai Indians (MI) | Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Will Jacks, Allah Ghazanfar, Mitchell Santner, Ryan Rickelton, Vignesh Puthur, Bevon Jacobs, Satyanarayana Raju, Raj Bawa, Ashwani Kumar, Arjun Tendulkar, Krishnan Shrijith. |
IPL 2025 Released Players List: RCB
Livingstone didn’t have a great season with the bat. He had to be replaced Romario Shepherd, who offered a solution in the finishing department. Apart from this, players such as Ngidi, Dar, Singh and Thushara might get released because they might get enough opportunities when the team enters the 19th season to defend their title.
- Liam Livingstone
- Lungi Ngidi
- Rasikh Dar
- Swapnil Singh
- Nuwan Thushara
IPL 2026 Released Players List: KKR
The former South Africa and England internationals, de Kock and Ali didn’t have a great season with the bat. They had to be dropped during the 18th season. Spencer didn’t get much chances while Powell didn’t fit in the 11 while Iyer was a disappointment.
- Quinton de Kock
- Moeen Ali
- Spencer Johnson
- Rovman Powell
- Venkatesh Iyer
IPL 2026 Released Players List: DC
After a steller 2024 season, the Australia international McGurk was a disappointment with the bat and had to be dropped from the 11. Apart from this, Rizvi couldn’t get much chances and Nair lost his form with the bat. Chameera is an injury prone bowler.
- Jake Fraser-McGurk
- Dushmantha Chameera
- Karun Nair
- Sameer Rizvi
IPL 2025 Released Players List: PBKS
Australia internationals, Stoinis and Maxwell, who have retired from the ODI format, didn’t have a great season with the bat in the IPL 2025 either. The likes of Bartlett and Hardie didn’t get enough chances. On the other hand, the likes of Wadhera and Omarzai had an OKish season.
- Marcus Stoinis
- Glenn Maxwell
- Azmatullah Omarzai
- Nehal Wadhera
- Xavier Bartlett
- Aaron Hardie
IPL 2026 Released Players List: RR
The team finished second last year and their is a rumor that Samson wants to leave the side. Apart from this, the rest of the players mentioned in the list didn’t have a great season.
- Sanju Samson
- Wanindu Hasaranga
- Akash Madhwal
- Fazalhaq Farooqi
IPL 2026 Released Players List: SRH
After playing the final in 2024, they failed to make it to the playoffs. Klassen hasn’t been the same player since the T20 World Cup 2024 final. Apart from this, Shami hasn’t been the greatest of T20 bowlers while Kishan had a poor season. Carse was injured and Baby didn’t get much chances.
- Heinrich Klaasen
- Mohammad Shami
- Brydon Carse
- Sachin Baby
- Ishan Kishan
IPL 2026 Released Players List: CSK
For the first time in their history, they finished 10th last season. Nothing much work apart from some young players who were replacements. Expect a mega auction from the team.
- Devon Conway
- Vijay Shankar
- Sam Curran
- Deepak Hooda
- Jamie Overton
- Mukesh Choudhary
IPL 2026 Released Players List: LSG
Joseph hasn’t gotten enough chances while Miller had a poor season. The likes of Khan and Hangergekar didn’t get much chances either.
- Shamar Joseph
- David Miller
- Rajvardhan Hangargekar
- Digvesh Singh
- Mohsin Khan
IPL 2026 Released Players List: GT
Even though Tewatia has won quite a few games for the team, he can’t be trusted for more than 12 balls, thanks to his lack of off-side game. Apart from him, Sharma didn’t even make it to the playing 11 of the West Delhi Lions, who won the Delhi Premier League 2025. Yadav isn’t a long run option either while Coetzee and Janat don’t guarantee their places in the playing XI.
- Rahul Tewatia
- Gerald Coetzee
- Ishant Sharma
- Jayant Yadav
- Karim Janat
IPL 2026 Released Players List: MI
Topley isn’t the same bowler when the ball doesn’t swing. Same is the case with Williams while Minz isn’t prepared for the IPL grind and Sharma is out of his prime.
- Reece Topley
- Lizaad Williams
- Robin Minz
- Karn Sharma
