IPL 2026 Retentions: Who stayed, who was released, and what each team can spend

The IPL 2026 retention list—featuring the players kept and released by all ten Indian Premier League franchises ahead of the upcoming auction—was formally unveiled on Saturday (November 15). Punjab Kings held on to the largest squad, retaining 21 players, while Kolkata Knight Riders kept the fewest, with just 12. KKR made some major decisions, letting go of long-time star Andre Russell, who had been with the franchise since 2014, and releasing Venkatesh Iyer, their costliest signing in franchise history last season.

Chennai Super Kings are expected to be highly active at the auction after parting ways with 13 players from their previous roster, including the now-retired Ravichandran Ashwin. MS Dhoni, however, remains with the team.

Other high-profile names released across franchises include Glenn Maxwell, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, and Ravi Bishnoi. Unlike the drastic squad reshaping that typically happens before mega auctions—where teams can retain only a small core—franchises are allowed to keep the majority of their squads ahead of mini auctions, as long as they stay within the INR 120 crore budget and maintain a roster of 18 to 25 players.

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Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained 17 members of their title-winning squad, with Virat Kohli still at the forefront. A series of player trades have also reshaped teams heading into IPL 2026. CSK exchanged Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran with Rajasthan Royals in return for Sanju Samson. Donovan Ferreira rejoined RR from Delhi Capitals through a swap involving Nitish Rana.

Shardul Thakur was traded from Lucknow Super Giants to Mumbai Indians in exchange for Arjun Tendulkar. LSG further strengthened their fast-bowling department by securing Mohammed Shami in an all-cash deal with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Additionally, Mumbai Indians picked up West Indies all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford from Gujarat Titans, while Mayank Markande returned to the MI setup in a move from KKR. The trade window remains open for further moves.

Here is the complete list of all the teams

Chennai Super Kings

Current team and retained players: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, MS Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis. Traded in: Sanju Samson (from RR).

Released players: Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddarth, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Sam Curran (traded to RR), Ravindra Jadeja (traded to RR), Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, and Matheesha Pathirana.

Purse remaining: Rs 43.40 crore

Mumbai Indians

Current team and retained players: Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickleton, Robin Minz, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Allah Ghafanzar, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks. Traded in: Sherfane Rutherford (from GT), Mayank Markande (from KKR), Shardul Thakur (from LSG).

Released players: Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Shrijith, Karn Sharma, Arjun Tendulkar (traded to LSG), Bevon Jacobs, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, and Vignesh Puthur.

Purse remaining: Rs 2.75 crore

Kolkata Knight Riders

Current team and retained players: Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakravarthy, Ramandeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora

Released players: Andre Russell, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Luvnith Sisodia, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson and Mayank Markande (traded to MI).

Purse remaining: Rs 64.30 crore

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Current team and retained players: 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.

Released players: Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, and Mohit Rathee.

Purse remaining: Rs 16.40 crore

Punjab Kings

Current team and retained players: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyala Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod.

Released players: Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, and Kuldeep Sen.

Purse remaining: Rs 11.50 crore

Gujarat Titans

Current team and retained players: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav.

Released players: Sherfane Rutherford (traded to MI), Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Dasun Shanaka, Gerald Coetzee, and Kulwant Khejroliya.

Purse remaining: Rs 12.90 crore

Rajasthan Royals

Current team and retained players: Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kunal Rathore, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kwena Maphaka, Ashok Sharma, Nandre Burger. Traded in: Ravindra Jadeja (from CSK), Sam Curran (from CSK).

Released players: Sanju Samson (traded to CSK), Nitish Rana (traded to DC), Wanindu Hasaranga, and Maheesh Theekshana

Purse remaining: Rs 16.05 crore

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Current team and retained players: 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.

Released players: Mohammed Shami (traded to LSG), Adam Zampa, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, and Sachin Baby.

Purse remaining: Rs 25.50 crore

Lucknow Super Giants

Current team and retained players: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (c), Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh. Traded in: Mohammed Shami (from SRH).

Released players: Aryan Juyal, David Miller, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shardul Thakur (traded to MI), Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi, and Shamar Joseph.

Purse remaining: Rs 22.95 crore

Delhi Capitals

Current team and retained players:Axar Patel (c), KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera. Traded in: Nitish Rana.

Released players: Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Donovan Ferreira (traded to RR), Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Mohit Sharma, and Darshan Nalkande.

Purse remaining: Rs 21.80 crore