Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings will headline the bidding wars at the IPL 2026 mini-auction on December 16 in Abu Dhabi, with the biggest purses in hand. (Image credit: BCCI/IPL) NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are set to headline the bidding battles at next month’s IPL mini-auction in Abu Dhabi on December 16, boasting the biggest available purses among all 10 franchises.KKR will go into the auction with Rs 63.4 crore after parting ways with high-value underperformers Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 23.75 crore) and Andre Russell (Rs 12 crore). CSK, meanwhile, have freed up Rs 40 crore despite trading in Sanju Samson, by letting go of multiple senior names.
IPL retentions, releases and trades: The burning questions before deadline
KKR aim to significantly revamp their squad, while CSK are expected to rebuild their bowling unit — with a possible bid to buy back Matheesha Pathirana or pursue Ben Stokes, subject to his post-Ashes availability.KKR have also released Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali, and Anrich Nortje, while retaining an experienced and dynamic core featuring Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Rinku Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Harshit Rana and Angkrish Raghuvanshi. They currently have 13 vacant slots, including six overseas spots.In the trading window, Ravindra Jadeja has moved to Rajasthan Royals and Sanju Samson has shifted to Chennai Super Kings — two of the biggest transfers in IPL history.As per an IPL advisory, Jadeja’s fee has been revised from Rs 18 crore to Rs 14 crore, while Samson will continue at his existing fee of Rs 18 crore. Samson, who has played 177 IPL matches since debuting in 2013, joins CSK as only his third franchise.England all-rounder Sam Curran will also join RR at his existing fee of Rs 2.4 crore.Veteran pacer Mohammed Shami has been traded to Lucknow Super Giants from Sunrisers Hyderabad at his existing fee of Rs 10 crore. After missing IPL 2024 due to injury, he remains a prized asset, having taken 20 wickets in Gujarat Titans’ 2023 title win.Arjun Tendulkar will join Lucknow Super Giants from Mumbai Indians at Rs 30 lakh, while Nitish Rana will represent Delhi Capitals after a move from Rajasthan Royals at Rs 4.2 crore. South Africa’s Donovan Ferreira returns to Rajasthan Royals from Delhi Capitals at a revised fee of Rs 1 crore.Delhi Capitals have released six players — including Faf du Plessis and Jake Fraser-McGurk — while retaining a strong core with Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc and Tristan Stubbs among others.Gujarat Titans have released five players — Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Dasun Shanaka and Mahipal Lomror — while trading Sherfane Rutherford to Mumbai Indians.CSK have released several notable names including Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, R Ashwin, Deepak Hooda, Sam Curran and Matheesha Pathirana.Sunrisers Hyderabad have parted ways with eight players, including Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa and Rahul Chahar.Punjab Kings released Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen and Praveen Dubey.Mumbai Indians have released nine players — notably Reece Topley, Karn Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman and Vignesh Puthur.Lucknow Super Giants have released Akashdeep, Ravi Bishnoi and David Miller — all significant exits.All released players will now enter the mini-auction pool.
IPL 2026 All Teams Purse Remaining Ahead of Mega Auction
TeamPurse Remaining (in crore)CSKRs 43.40MIRs 2.75RCBRs 16.40KKRRs 64.30SRHRs 25.50GTRs 12.90RRRs 16.05DCRs 21.80LSGRs 22.95PBKSRs 11.50
IPL 2026 – Retained and Released Players
GUJARAT TITANS:Retained: 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: Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Dasun Shanaka, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya.Traded Out: Sherfane Rutherford (to Mumbai Indians)LSG:Retained: Rishabh Pant (c), Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, M Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash SinghReleased: Ravi Bishnoi, David Miller, Akash Deep, Aryan Juyal, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar.Traded In: Mohd Shami (from SRH), Arjun Tendulkar (from MI)Traded Out: Shardul Thakur (to MI)DC:Retained: Axar Patel, KL 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, and Nitish Rana.Released: Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Sediqullah Atal, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Manvanth Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan FerreiraKKR:Retained: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun ChakaravarthyReleased: Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Mayank Markande (traded out)CSK:Retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjanpreet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh ChoudharyReleased: Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, Andre Siddharth, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Matheesha PathiranaTraded in: Sanju Samson (from RR)Traded out: Sam Curran, Ravindra JadejaRCB: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, Suyash SharmaReleased: Liam Livingstone, Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit RatheePBKS: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 BrarReleased: Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dube.RR:Released: Kunal Rathore, Nitish Rana (to DC), Sanju Samson (to CSK), Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash MadhwalRetained: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Luhan Dre Pretorius, Shubham Dube, Donovan Ferreira (from DC), Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja (from CSK), Sam Curran, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Yudhvir SinghMI: Retained: AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande (Trade In), Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Shardul Thakur (Trade In), Sherfane Rutherford (Trade In), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Will JacksReleased: Bevon Jacobs, Karn Sharma, KL Shrijith, Lizaad Williams, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, PSN Raju, Reece Topley, Vignesh Puthur.SRH:Retained: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, B Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan AnsariReleased: Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Mohammed Shami, Smarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa
