The 2026 IPL auction is scheduled for December 16, 2025, and will take place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. This continues the trend of overseas auctions, following Dubai (2024) and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2025).
The auction details were finalized after the retention window closed on November 15. A total of 173 players have been retained across the ten franchises, including 49 overseas players. With squad limits capped at 25, the mini-auction will have 77 open slots available for teams to fill.
All teams together will spend from a combined purse of ₹237.55 crore.
Punjab Kings chose maximum continuity with 21 retained players, while Gujarat Titans kept 20. Mumbai Indians also sit at 20 players after bringing in Shardul Thakur and Sherfane Rutherford, but they enter the auction with only ₹2.75 crore, the lowest purse among all teams.
Kolkata Knight Riders have the most spending power with a purse of ₹64.3 crore and can make up to 13 additions, including six overseas. Chennai Super Kings follow with ₹43.4 crore to fill nine slots.
The Etihad Arena auction is expected to be decisive as teams target the 77 available places with sharply differing budget sizes.
2026 IPL Auction: Remaining Purse Balance of Each Team
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) – Rs 64.3 crore
Retained: Ajinkya Rahane, Anukul Roy, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Released: Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Moeen Ali, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, Mayank Markande (traded out)
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) – Rs 43.4 crore
Retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, MS Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjanpreet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary
Released: Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, Rachin Ravindra, Andre Siddharth, Devon Conway, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Matheesha Pathirana
Traded in: Sanju Samson (from RR)
Traded out: Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) – Rs 25.5 crore
Retained: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, B Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kamindu Mendis, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari
Released: Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Wiaan Mulder, Sachin Baby, Mohammed Shami, Smarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) – Rs 22.9 crore
Retained: Rishabh Pant (c), Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Arshin Kulkarni, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, M Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh
Released: Ravi Bishnoi, David Miller, Akash Deep, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Aryan Juyal, and Rajvardhan Hangargekar.
Traded In: Arjun Tendulkar (from MI), Mohd Shami (from SRH)
Traded Out: Shardul Thakur (to MI)
Delhi Capitals (DC) – Rs 21.8 crore
Retained: Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, and Nitish Rana.
Released: Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) – Rs 16.4 crore
Retained: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma
Released: Liam Livingstone, Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Manoj Bhandage, Tim Seifert, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathee
Rajasthan Royals (RR) – Rs 16.05 crore
Retained: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Luhan Dre Pretorius, Shubham Dube, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira (from DC), Ravindra Jadeja (from CSK), Sam Curran, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Yudhvir Singh
Released: Kunal Rathore, Nitish Rana (to DC), Sanju Samson (to CSK), Wanindu Hasaranga, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Maheesh Theekshana, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal
Gujarat Titans (GT) – Rs 12.9 crore
Retained: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Arshad Khan, Washington Sundar, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav.
Released: Mahipal Lomror, Dasun Shanaka, Karim Janat, Gerald Coetzee, and Kulwant Khejroliya.
Traded Out: Sherfane Rutherford (to Mumbai Indians)
Punjab Kings (PBKS) – Rs 11.5 crore
Retained: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Pyla Avinash, Musheer Khan, Harnoor Pannu, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar
Released: Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Kuldeep Sen, Aaron Hardie, and Praveen Dube.
Mumbai Indians (MI) – Rs 2.75 crore
Retained: AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande (Trade In), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Shardul Thakur (Trade In), Sherfane Rutherford (Trade In), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Will Jacks
Released: Bevon Jacobs, Karn Sharma, KL Shrijith, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, PSN Raju, Reece Topley, and Vignesh Puthur.
FAQs
Q. Which team has the biggest purse in IPL 2026?
A. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has the biggest purse with ₹64.3 crore.
Q. What is RCB’s purse for IPL 2026?
A. RCB has ₹16.4 crore remaining for IPL 2026.
Q. What is CSK’s purse for IPL 2026?
A. CSK has ₹43.4 crore remaining for IPL 2026.
Q. Which IPL team is the richest (brand value)?
A. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is the richest team by brand value.
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