Top 3 teams likely to rebuild from scratch in IPL 2026 auction

1. Kolkata Knight Riders

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) finished the campaign at No. 8 after winning the title last year. They didn't have a great start to the auction, failing to secure the services of their title-winning skipper, Shreyas Iyer. However, they turned heads by signing Venkatesh Iyer for a whopping INR 23.75 crore. They didn't have a huge budget heading into the auction, as they had already retained six players. The hefty amount given to Venkatesh meant there was not much money left to spend on the rest of the players.

KKR depended on their retentions, and most of them didn't come to the party. While Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy were brilliant, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, and Harshit Rana failed to live up to their reputations. Russell did play a few good knocks towards the backend, but KKR's campaign was already doomed by then. Anrich Nortje and Spencer Johnson couldn't replicate the performances of Mitchell Starc in the previous edition. Phil Salt's absence at the top of the order was also felt.