IPL 2026 Trade/Transfer Update: A complete look at team retentions, player releases and team-wise purse remaining ahead of the new season.
With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 mini-auction approaching, franchises have shaken up their squads with some bold and unexpected calls during the retention and trade window. Several high-profile releases, surprising trades, and strategic purse management decisions have set the stage for an intriguing mini-auction. Here’s a breakdown of the major moves across teams.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) made the most shocking call ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 mini-auction, releasing both their all-rounders, Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer, from last season’s squad. Russell, who retired from T20Is earlier this year, made an influential exit, while Iyer—last year’s most expensive buy at INR 23.75 crore—was also released.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had a busy trading window, parting ways with veteran star Ravindra Jadeja along with Sam Curran. They also released several other names, including Matheesha Pathirana and the New Zealand duo of Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra.
Rajasthan Royals traded out their captain, Sanju Samson, to CSK and moved Nitish Rana to Delhi Capitals (DC). Gujarat Titans, the 2022 champions, released Gerald Coetzee and several other notable players, leaving them with a remaining purse of INR 12.90 crore. Meanwhile, the five-time champions Mumbai Indians strengthened their squad by bringing in Sherfane Rutherford, Shardul Thakur, and Mayank Markande during the trading window.
The defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), finished with a purse of INR 16.4 crore. They released eight players, including notable names such as Liam Livingstone and Tim Seifert. Faf du Plessis and Mohit Sharma headlined DC’s list of seven releases, which also included Jake Fraser-McGurk.
Mumbai Indians, overall, let go of nine players and ended up with a purse of INR 2.75 crore—the lowest among all ten franchises. Satyanarayana Raju and Vignesh Puthur, who had a couple of impressive outings last season, were among those released.
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Let’s take a look at all IPL 2026 franchises’ retention, release, trade and remaining purse.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)
Players Released- 08, Retained- 17, Purse available- INR 16.4 crore, Slot available- 8 (2 overseas)
Players released- Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathee.
Current squad- Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Krunal Pandya, Josh Hazlewood, Tim David, Jitesh Sharma, Devdutt Padikkal, Nuwan Thushara, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Yash Dayal, Abhinandan Singh, Rasikh Dar.
Mumbai Indians (MI)
Players Released- 09, Retained- 17, Purse available- INR 2.75 crore, Slots available- 5 (1 Overseas)
Players released- Arjun Tendulkar (traded to LSG), Bevon Jacobs, Reece Topley, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, KL Shrijith, Lizaad Williams, Karn Sharma, Vignesh Puthur.
Current squad- AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Will Jacks, Shardul Thakur (traded in from LSG), Mayank Markande (traded in from KKR), Sherfane Rutherford (traded in from GT)
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Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
Players Released- 12, Retained- 15, Purse available- INR 43.4 crore, Slots available- 09 (4 overseas)
Players released- Ravindra Jadeja (traded to RR), Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddharth, Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Sam Curran (traded to RR), Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Matheesha Pathirana, Ravichandran Ashwin (retired)
Current squad- Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary, Sanju Samson (traded in from RR).
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Rajasthan Royals (RR)
Players Released- 09, Retained- 13, Purse available- INR 16.05 crore, Slots available- 09 (1 overseas)
Players released- Sanju Samson (traded to CSK), Nitish Rana (traded to DC), Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Kunal Sigh Rathore, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya.
Current squad- Dhruv Jurel, Jofra Archer, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Nandre Burger, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yudhvir Singh, Ravindra Jadeja (traded in from CSK), Sam Curran (traded in from CSK)
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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Players Released- 10, Retained- 12, Purse available- INR 64.3 crore, Slots available- 13 (6 overseas)
Players released- Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Andre Russell, Moeen Ali, Venkatesh Iyer, Mayank Markande (traded to MI), Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson.
Current squad- Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy.
Punjab Kings (PBKS)
Players Released- 05, Retained- 21, Purse available- INR 11.5 crore, Slots available- 4 (2 overseas)
Players released- Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dubey.
Current squad- Arshdeep Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Harpreet Brar, Lockie Ferguson, Marco Jansen, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Owen, Musheer Khan, Nehal Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Gujarat Titans (GT)
Players Released- 08, Retained- 20, Purse available- INR 12.90 crore, Slots available- 5 (4 overseas)
Players released- Sherfane Rutherford (traded to MI), Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Dasun Shanaka, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya.
Current squad- Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips, Gurnoor Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Jos Buttler, Kagiso Rabada, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Arshad Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Prasidh Krishna, R Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, B Sai Sudharsan, M Shahrukh Khan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Players Released- 08, Retained- 15, Purse available- INR 25.5 crore, Slots available- 10 (2 overseas)
Players released- Mohammad Shami (traded to LSG), Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa.
Current squad- Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Aniket Verma, Kamindu Mendis, Eshan Malinga, Brydon Carse, Harsh Dubey, Smaran Ravichandran, Zeeshan Ansari.
Delhi Capitals (DC)
Players Released- 07, Retained- 16, Purse available- INR 21.80 crore, Slots available- 8 (4 overseas)
Players released- Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Donovan Ferreria (traded to RR), Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande.
Current squad- Abishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Sameer Rizvi, T Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Nitish Rana (traded in from RR)
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)
Players Released- 08, Retained- 17, Purse available- INR 22.95 crore, Slots available- 06 (4 overseas)
Players released- Aryan Juyal, David Miler, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shardul Thakur (traded to MI), Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph.
Current squad- Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Akash Singh, Arshin Kulkarni, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke, Mayank Yadav, Mitchell Marsh, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Prince Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arjun Tendulkar (traded in from MI) Mohammed Shami (traded in from SRH).
