As the much-anticipated new IPL season draws near, excitement is once again sweeping across the cricketing world. The cash-rich tournament, known for its electrifying atmosphere, high-voltage clashes and star-studded line-ups, promises another summer of unforgettable sporting drama.
With new strategies and revamped combinations, the 2026 season season is set to offer fans a compelling blend of cricketing brilliance and entertainment.
Ahead of the mini-auction, scheduled to be held in Doha on December 26, the 10 franchises released their list of retained and released players.
While most of the predictable names secured their spots, it was the surprise exclusions and bold retentions that dominated headlines on retention day.
Proven stars like Andre Russell, David Miller, Glenn Maxwell and Faf Du Plessis are set to go under the hammer. The surprising decisions have opened up intriguing possibilities for the auction, where released big names are expected to spark intense bidding wars.
A look at each team's full squad -- the players released and retained -- and the purse remaining:
RCB release Livingstone, Ngidi
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru have parted ways with England all-rounder Liam Livingstone and South African speedster Lungi Ngidi. They have also announced the departure of Kiwi batter Tim Seifert and Zimbabwe pacer Blessing Muzarabani.
Left-arm pacer Yash Dayal has been retained while RCB let go of Mayank Agarwal.
Retained players: Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Krunal Pandya, Josh Hazlewood, Tim David, Jitesh Sharma, Devdutt Padikkal, Nuwan Thushara, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, SuyashSharma, Swapnil Singh, Yash Dayal, Abhinandan Singh, Rasikh Dar.
Released players: Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathee.
Purse remaining: Rs 16.40 crore (Rs 164 million)
Titans part ways with Coetzee
Gujarat Titans have retained their core group: Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Jos Buttler, Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Mohammed Siraj.
Gerald Coetzee, Karim Janat, Mahipal Lomror, Dasun Shanaka and Kulwant Khejroliya were among the cricketers GT released ahead of the new season. Earlier, Sherfane Rutherford was traded to the Mumbai Indians.
Retained players: Shubman Gill, 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.
Released players: Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Dasun Shanaka, Mahipal Lomror.
Purse remaining: Rs 12.90 crore (Rs 129 million)
MI keep core intact
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians affirmed their commitment to continuity by keeping their core group. Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma will once again don the Blue and Gold.
Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Ryan Rickelton, Will Jacks, Mitchell Santner and Corbin Bosch have been retained.
Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford, Mayank Markande have joined them.
MI released several uncapped Indian players including left-arm wrist-spinner Vignesh Puthur and Andhra Pradesh pacer V Satyanarayana Raju.
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, Raghu Sharma, and Raj Angad Bawa. Traded in: Sherfane Rutherford (from Titans), Mayank Markande (from KKR), Shardul Thakur (from LSG).
Released players: Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, K L Shrijith, Karn Sharma, Bevon Jacobs, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur. Traded out: Arjun Tendulkar (to LSG).
Purse remaining: Rs 2.75 crore (Rs 27.5 million)
CSK overhaul squad
Five-time champions Chennai Super Kings released a staggering 11 players, the most among the 10 franchises.
The most prominent overseas departures include Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, and Matheesha Pathirana.
Another major omission is Ravindra Jadeja, who was swapped along with Sam Curran for Sanju Samson. Jadeja's absence will certainly be felt as he is CSK's leading wicket-taker with 143 scalps in 186 matches and the fifth-highest run-getter with 2,198 runs at an average of 28.54.
Young South African Dewald Brewis, who did well last season after coming in as an injury replacement, has been retained.
Chennai will also miss Ravichandran Ashwin, who announced his retirement from Indian cricket earlier this year.
Retained players: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), M S Dhoni, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Jamie Overton, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Noor Ahmad, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Khaleel Ahmed. Traded in: Sanju Samson (from RR)
Released Players: Matheesha Pathirana, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Andre Siddarth, Shaik Rasheed, Vansh Bedi. Traded out: Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran (to RR)
Purse remaining: Rs 43.4 crore (Rs 434 million)
KKR snap ties with Russell
In a bold move, Kolkata Knight Riders parted ways with their marquee all-rounder Andre Russell, ending a decade-long association.
Russell, who won the IPL MVP award in 2015 and 2019, had been a central figure for KKR since joining the franchise in 2014. He was one of the five players retained ahead of the 2025 mega auction for Rs 12 crore (Rs 120 million).
Among other overseas players released are Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Spencer Johnson.
KKR have also made another big call by releasing Venkatesh Iyer, who was acquired for a whopping Rs 23.75 crore (Rs 237.5 million) at the 2025 mega auction.
Retained players: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Released players: Andre Russell, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Luvnith Sisodia, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson. Traded out: Mayank Markande (to MI).
Purse remaining: Rs 64.30 crore (Rs 643 million)
Miller, Akash Deep leave LSG
Lucknow Super Giants have released South African power-hitter David Miller and pace spearhead Akash Deep.
Miller, who was acquired for Rs 7.5 crore (Rs 75 million), could not live up to the expectations, mustering just 153 runs at 30.60 in 11 appearances last season. Akash too had a disappointing run, picking just three wickets at a poor average of 76.33.
He missed the initial phase of the last season while recovering from an injury and joined the camp for the latter half of the season. In six appearances, Akash scalped three wickets at a dismal average of 76.33 while leaking runs at an economy of 12.05.
LSG have bolstered their pace attack by bringing in veteran Mohammed Shami from Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Retained players: Rishabh Pant (Captain), 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. Traded in: Mohammed Shami (from SRH) and Arjun Tendulkar (from MI).
Released players: David Miller, Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Deep, Aryan Juyal, Shamar Joseph, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar. Traded out: Shardul Thakur (to MI).
Purse remaining: Rs 22.95 crore (Rs 229.5 crore)
Capitals retain 17 players
Delhi Capitals have retained most of the players from the current squad while releasing six, namely Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Sediqullah Atal, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Manvanth Kumar, Darshan Nalkande.
Axar Patel, K L Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc and Tristan Stubbs are some of the key players retained by DC. They have also brought in Nitish Rana from Rajasthan Royals in exchange for Donovan Ferreira.
Retained players: Axar Patel (Captain), K L Rahul, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav. Traded in: Nitish Rana (from RR)
Released players: Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Sediqullah Atal, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Manvanth Kumar, Darshan Nalkande. Traded out: Donovan Ferreira (to RR).
Purse remaining: Rs 21.8 crore (Rs 218 million)
SRH keep Klaasen
Sunrisers Hyderabad retained their most expensive player Heinrich Klaasen despite reports indicating that they were planning to release the Proteas star who fetched Rs 23 crore (Rs 230 million) at the previous auction.
The 2024 finalists released leg-spinners Adam Zampa and Rahul Chahar as well as all-rounder Wiaan Mulder.
They also parted ways with Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Mohammed Shami, Simarjeet Singh and Abhinav Manohar.
Retained players: Pat Cummins (Captain), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, B Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari
Released players: Adam Zampa, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Simarjeet Singh, Sachin Baby. Traded out: Mohammed Shami (to LSG).
Purse remaining: Rs 25.50 crore (Rs 255 million)
RR release spin duo
The Sri Lankan spin duo of Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana as well as Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqi have bid goodbye to Rajasthan Royals.
In one of the biggest swap deals in IPL history, RR brought in Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran from CSK in exchange for their skipper Sanju Samson. They also traded Nitish Rana to Delhi Capitals to bring in Donovan Ferreira.
RR also released Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya and Akash Madhwal.
Retained players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Luhan de Pretorius, Shubham Dube, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Kewna Mapahka, Yudhvir Singh. Traded in: Donovan Ferreira (from DC), Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran (from CSK).
Released players: Wanindu Hasaranga, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal, Maheesh Theekshana, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Ashok Sharma, Kunal Rathore. Traded out: Sanju Samson (to CSK), Nitish Rana (to DC).
Purse remaining: Rs 16.05 crore (Rs 160.5 million)
Punjab ditch Maxwell, Inglis
Punjab Kings released five players from last year's squad, including Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.
While ensuring that the core of the team remains the same, Punjab also released Kuldeep Sen, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie and Pravin Dube.
Maxwell, who was part of their squad in 2014, returned to the side last year with a price tag of Rs 4.2 crore (Rs 42 million). However, the Australian swashbuckler was a pale shadow of his former self as he could accumulate just 48 runs in six innings at a poor average of 8.00.
Retained players: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), 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.
Released players: Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dube.
Purse remaining: Rs 11.50 crore (Rs 115 million)
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