The IPL 2026 retention list has been made public, showing which players every Indian Premier League team kept and which ones they let go before the auction that is going to take place. The Punjab Kings were at the top of the list in terms of the number of players retained with 21, while the Kolkata Knight Riders had the fewest players remaining at 12. The KKR team let go of Andre Russell, who has been with the team since 2014, besides that, many other players were released, such as Venkatesh Iyer, who was the most expensive player last season being the franchise’s IPL history.
Chennai Super Kings are believed to be the ones who will make the most of the auction coming up, having lost from last season 13 including the retirement of Ravichandran Ashwin. The franchise has confirmed the retention of MS Dhoni in the team. Other big names released by their respective teams are Glenn Maxwell, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, and Ravi Bishnoi.
Teams can keep most of their players before mini auctions while still being within the INR 120 crore budget and roster of 18-25 players. Unlike mega auctions, where only a few core players can be retained, this is the situation now.
IPL 2026 retention list: Players retained and released:
CSK retained players
- Ruturaj Gaikwad
- MS Dhoni
- Dewald Brevis* (SA)
- Ayush Mhatre
- Urvil Patel
- Anshul Kamboj
- Jamie Overton* (ENG)
- Ramakrishna Ghosh
- Shivam Dube
- Khaleel Ahmed
- Noor Ahmad* (AFG)
- Mukesh Choudhary
- Nathan Ellis* (AUS)
- Shreyas Gopal
- Gurjapneet Singh
- Sanju Samson – trade in from RR
CSK released players
- Ravindra Jadeja – trade out to RR
- Sam Curran* (ENG) – trade out to RR
- Rahul Tripathi
- Vansh Bedi
- Andre Siddarth
- Rachin Ravindra* (NZ)
- Deepak Hooda
- Vijay Shankar
- Shaik Rasheed
- Kamlesh Nagarkoti
- Matheesha Pathirana* (SL)
- Devon Conway* (NZ)
- Ravichandran Ashwin (retired)
- Delhi Capitals IPL 2026 retention
DC retained players
- KL Rahul
- Karun Nair
- Abishek Porel
- Tristan Stubbs* (SA)
- Axar Patel
- Sameer Rizvi
- Ashutosh Sharma
- Vipraj Nigam
- Ajay Mandal
- Tripurana Vijay
- Madhav Tiwari
- Mitchell Starc* (AUS)
- T. Natarajan
- Mukesh Kumar
- Dushmantha Chameera* (SL)
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Nitish Rana – trade in from RR
DC released players
- Donovan Ferreira* (SA) – trade out to RR
- Faf du Plessis* (SA)
- Jake Fraser-McGruk* (AUS)
- Sediqullah Atal* (AFG)
- Manvanth Kumar
- Mohit Sharma
- Darshan Nalkande
GT retained players
- Shubman Gill
- Sai Sudharsan
- Kumar Kushagra
- Anuj Rawat
- Jos Buttler* (ENG)
- Nishant Sindhu
- Glenn Phillips* (NZ)
- Washington Sundar
- Arshad Khan
- Shahrukh Khan
- Rahul Tewatia
- Kagiso Rabada* (SA)
- Mohammed Siraj
- Prasidh Krishna
- Ishant Sharma
- Gurnoor Singh Brar
- Rashid Khan* (AFG)
- Manav Suthar
- Sai Kishore
- Jayant Yadav
GT released players
- Sherfane Rutherford* (WI) – trade out to MI
- Mahipal Lomror
- Karim Janat* (AFG)
- Dasun Shanaka* (SL)
- Gerald Coetzee* (SA)
- Kulwant Khejroliya
KKR retained players
- Ajinkya Rahane
- Rinku Singh
- Angkrish Raghuvanshi
- Manish Pandey
- Rovman Powell* (WI)
- Anukul Roy
- Ramandeep Singh
- Vaibhav Arora
- Sunil Narine* (WI)
- Varun Chakaravarthy
- Harshit Rana
- Umran Malik
KKR released players
- Mayank Markande – trade out to MI
- Andre Russell* (WI)
- Venkatesh Iyer
- Quinton de Kock* (SA)
- Anrich Nortje* (SA)
- Luvnith Sisodia
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz* (AFG)
- Moeen Ali* (ENG)
- Chetan Sakariya
- Spencer Johnson* (AUS)
LSG retained players
- Rishabh Pant
- Ayush Badoni
- Abdul Samad
- Aiden Markram* (SA)
- Himmat Singh
- Matthew Breetzke* (SA)
- Nicholas Pooran* (WI)
- Mitchell Marsh* (AUS)
- Shahbaz Ahamad
- Arshin Kulkarni
- Mayank Yadav
- Avesh Khan
- Mohsin Khan
- M. Siddharth
- Digvesh Rathi
- Prince Yadav
- Akash Singh
- Arjun Tendulkar – trade in from MI
- Mohammed Shami – trade in from SRH
LSG released players
- Shardul Thakur – trade out to MI
- David Miller* (SA)
- Aryan Juyal
- Yuvraj Chaudhary
- Rajvardhan Hangargekar
- Akash Deep
- Ravi Bishnoi
MI retained players
- Rohit Sharma
- Surya Kumar Yadav
- Robin Minz
- Ryan Rickelton* (SA)
- Tilak Varma
- Hardik Pandya
- Naman Dhir
- Mitchell Santner* (NZ)
- Will Jacks* (AUS)
- Corbin Bosch* (SA)
- Raj Bawa
- Trent Boult* (NZ)
- Jasprit Bumrah
- Deepak Chahar
- Ashwani Kumar
- Raghu Sharma
- Allah Ghazanfar* (AFG)
- Mayank Markande – trade in from KKR
- Shardul Thakur – trade in from LSG
- Sherfane Rutherford* (WI) – trade in from GT
MI released players
- Arjun Tendulkar – trade out to LSG
- Satyanarayana Raju
- Reece Topley* (ENG)
- KL Shrijith
- Karn Sharma
- Bevon Jacobs* (SA)
- Mujeeb-ur-Rahman* (AFG)
- Lizaad Williams* (SA)
- Vignesh Puthur
PBKS retained players
- Shreyas Iyer
- Nehal Wadhera
- Vishnu Vinod
- Harnoor Pannu
- Pyla Avinash
- Prabhsimran Singh
- Shashank Singh
- Marcus Stoinis* (AUS)
- Harpreet Brar
- Marco Jansen* (SA)
- Azmatullah Omarzai* (AFG)
- Priyansh Arya
- Musheer Khan
- Suryansh Shedge
- Mitch Owen* (AUS)
- Arshdeep Singh
- Yuzvendra Chahal
- Vyshak Vijaykumar
- Yash Thakur
- Xavier Bartlett* (AUS)
- Lockie Ferguson* (NZ)
PBKS released players
- Josh Inglis* (AUS)
- Aaron Hardie* (AUS)
- Glenn Maxwell* (AUS)
- Kuldeep Sen
- Praveen Dubey
RCB retained players
- Rajat Patidar
- Virat Kohli
- Tim David* (AUS)
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Phil Salt* (ENG)
- Jitesh Sharma
- Krunal Pandya
- Jacob Bethell* (ENG)
- Romario Shepherd* (WI)
- Swapnil Singh
- Josh Hazlewood* (AUS)
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Rasikh Salam
- Yash Dayal
- Suyash Sharma
- Nuwan Thushara* (SL)
- Abhinandan Singh
RCB released players
- Mayank Agarwal
- Swastik Chhikara
- Tim Seifert* (NZ)
- Liam Livingstone* (ENG)
- Manoj Bhandage
- Lungi Ngidi* (SA)
- Mohit Rathee
RR retained players
- Shubham Dubey
- Vaibhav Suryavanshi
- Lhuan-dre Pretorius* (SA)
- Shimron Hetmyer* (WI)
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Dhruv Jurel
- Riyan Parag
- Yudhvir Singh Charak
- Jofra Archer* (ENG)
- Tushar Deshpande
- Fazalhaq Farooqi* (AFG)
- Kwena Maphaka* (SA)
- Nandre Burger* (SA)
- Ravindra Jadeja – trade in from CSK
- Sam Curran* (ENG) – trade in from CSK
- Donovan Ferreira* (SA) – trade in from DC
RR released players
- Sanju Samson – trade out to CSK
- Nitish Rana – trade out to DC
- Kunal Singh Rathore
- Maheesh Theekshana* (SL)
- Wanindu Hasaranga* (SL)
- Fazalhaq Farooqi* (AFG)
- Akash Madhwal
- Kumar Kartikeya
- Ashok Sharma
SRH retained players
- Travis Head* (AUS)
- Abhishek Sharma
- Aniket Verma
- R Smaran
- Ishan Kishan
- Heinrich Klaasen* (SA)
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
- Harsh Dubey
- Kamindu Mendis* (SL)
- Harshal Patel
- Brydon Carse* (ENG)
- Pat Cummins* (AUS)
- Jaydev Unadkat
- Eshan Malinga* (SL)
- Zeeshan Ansari
SRH released players
- Mohammad Shami – trade out to LSG
- Abhinav Manohar
- Atharva Taide
- Sachin Baby
- Wiaan Mulder* (SA)
- Simarjeet Singh
- Rahul Chahar
- Adam Zampa* (AUS)
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