IPL 2026 Retentions: Full list of players retained, released & trades for all 10 teams ahead of Auction

The Indian Premier League, for the spectacle it is, will see its nineteenth edition take place in 2026. The IPL started in 2008 where Rajasthan Royals (RR), led by Shane Warne, tasted glory. However, they have only come close since then. Speaking of the most successful franchises in the league, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) have won five titles each. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), meanwhile, have won thrice.

The auction for the 2026 season will be held on December 16 in Abu Dhabi, and the teams have already started their preparations for the tournament, by retaining the top draws while also releasing a few to make the squad better for the next edition. While a few retentions have been no-brainers for all the ten franchises, there have been several names that have made the sides scratch their heads, as going with a hefty kitty at the auction table is also extremely important.

The most significant retentions ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction include names like MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Hardik Pandya (Mumbai Indians), Rishabh Pant (Lucknow Super Giants), Shubman Gill (Gujarat Titans), KL Rahul (Delhi Capitals), Jasprit Bumrah (Mumbai Indians), Nicholas Pooran (Lucknow Super Giants), and Shreyas Iyer  (Punjab Kings) among others.

Several trades have also made headlines, with the most prominent being the one between CSK and RR, as Chennai swept in Sanju Samson by giving away all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to Rajasthan. All-cash deals that have surfaced well include the ones of Shardul Thakur, Arjun Tendulkar, Mayank Markande, Sherfane Rutherford, and Mohammed Shami, to name a few.

Here's the list of retained players, released players and purse remaining for all teams

IPL 2026: SRH Retained and Released Player List

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Retained Players List:

Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins (C), Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Released Player List:

Mohammed Shami (Trade out), Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa

IPL 2026: LSG Retained and Released Player List

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Retained Players List:

Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Himmat Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Arjun Tendulkar, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Mohsin Khan, M Siddharth, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Released Player List:

Shardul Thakur, David Miller, Aryan Juyal, Yuvraj Choudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shamar Joseph, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi

IPL 2026: GT Retained and Released Player List

Gujarat Titans (GT) Retained Players List:

Shubman Gill (C), Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Glenn Philips, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav

Gujarat Titans (GT) Released Player List:

Dasun Shanaka, Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Sherfane Rutherford (Trade out)

IPL 2026: PBKS Retained and Released Player List

Punjab Kings (PBKS) Retained Players List:

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

Punjab Kings (PBKS) Released Player List:

Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dubey

IPL 2026: DC Retained and Released Player List

Delhi Capitals (DC) Retained Players List

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

Delhi Capitals (DC) Released Player List:

Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mohit Sharma, Donovan Ferreira, Sediqullah Atal, Manvath Kumar, Darshan Nalkande

IPL 2026: RR Retained and Released Player List

Rajasthan Royals (RR) Retained Players List:

Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Shubham Dubey, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Yudhvir Singh Charak

Rajasthan Royals (RR) Released Player List:

Sanju Samson (Trade out), Nitish Rana (Trade out), Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kunal Singh Rathore

IPL 2026: KKR Retained and Released Player List

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Retained Players List: 

Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Released Player List:

Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Moeen Ali, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Luvnith Sisodia, Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson, Mayank Markande (Trade out)

IPL 2026: CSK Retained and Released Player List

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Retained Players List:

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Sanju Samson (Trade in), Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Released Player List:

Ravindra Jadeja (Trade out), Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Matheesha Pathirana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sam Curran (Trade out), Shaik Rasheed, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Andre Siddarth, Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi

IPL 2026: MI Retained and Released Player List

Mumbai Indians (MI) Retained Players List:

Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Hardik Pandya (C), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, AM Ghazanfar, Shardul Thakur (Trade in), Sherfane Rutherford (Trade in), Mayank Markande (Trade in)

Mumbai Indians (MI) Released Player List:

Sathyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Shrijith, Karn Sharma, Bevon Jacobs, Mustafizur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur, Arjun Tendulkar (Trade out)

IPL 2026: RCB Retained and Released Player List

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Retained Players List:

Rajat Patidar (C), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Released Player List:

Liam Livingstone, Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathee

Team-wise Purse and RTMs ahead of IPL 2026 Auctions