The list of all retained and released players for each franchise ahead of IPL 2026 has been officially announced. Some of the releases have left fans surprised. For example, Andre Russell has been released by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), while Matheesha Pathirana has been released by Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
KKR will enter the auction with the highest purse remaining — ₹64.3 crore. The mini-auction is reportedly set to take place in mid-December 2025 in Abu Dhabi.
Chennai Super Kings
Players Retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), 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
Players Released: Matheesha Pathirana, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Sam Curran (traded), Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaikh Rasheed, Andre Siddarth, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Vansh Bedi
Players Traded In: Sanju Samson (from Rajasthan Royals)
Players Traded Out: Ravindra Jadeja (to Rajasthan Royals), Sam Curran (to Rajasthan Royals)
Purse Remaining: Rs 43.40 crore
Mumbai Indians
Payers Retained: Hardik Pandya (C), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Naman Dhir, Raj Angad Bawa, Ashwani Kumar, Robin Minz (WK), Raghu Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Corbin Bosch, Will Jacks, Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner, Allah Ghazanfar
Players Released: Satyanarayana Raju, KL Shrijeet, Lizaad Williams, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Bevon Jacobs, Reece Topley, Vignesh Puthur, Karn Sharma.
Players Traded In: Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford, Mayank Markande
Players Traded Out: Arjun Tendulkar
Purse Remaining: Rs 2.75 crore
Kolkata Knight Riders
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.
Players Released: Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Moeen Ali, Spencer Johnson, Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya.
Purse Remaining: Rs 64.3 crore
Lucknow Super Giants
Players Retained: Rishabh Pant (c), Mohammed Shami (trade-in), Arjun Tendulkar (trade-in), Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Breetzke, Nicholas Pooran, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Digvesh Rathi, M Siddharth, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh
Players Released: David Miller, Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Deep, Aryan Juyal, Shamar Joseph, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shardul Thakur (traded)
Purse Remaining: Rs 22.95 crore.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Players Retained: Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R. Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari.
Players Released: Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby
Purse Remaining: Rs 25.5 crore
Gujarat Titans
Players 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.
Players Released: Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Dasun Shanaka and Mahipal Lomror, Sherfane Rutherford (traded).
Purse Remaining: Rs 12.9 crore
Delhi Capitals
Players Retained: Axar Patel (c), KL Rahul, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera.
Players Released: Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Donovan Ferreira (traded), Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande.
Purse Remaining: Rs 21.80 crore
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Players Retained: 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, and Suyash Sharma.
Players Released: Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Mohit Rathee.
Purse Remaining: Rs 16.4 crore.
Punjab Kings
Players Retained: Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Pyla Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Musheer Khan, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar
Players Released: Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dubey
Purse Remaining: Rs 11.50 crore.
Rajasthan Royals
Players Retained: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger, Lhuan-dre Pretorius
Players Released: Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma.
Players Traded In: Ravindra Jadeja , Sam Curran , Donovan Ferreira
Players Traded Out: Sanju Samson , Nitish Rana.
Purse Remaining: Rs 16.05 crore
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