The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season may still be months away, but all 10 franchises have already submitted their retention lists, setting the stage for the upcoming mega auction. While icons like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and MS Dhoni will stay with their current teams, several unexpected releases and blockbuster trades have stirred up excitement.
Here’s the complete breakdown of retained and released players for every franchise ahead of IPL 2026:
1) Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)
Retained:
Rajat Patidar, 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 Sharma
Released:Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Blessing Muzarabani, Mohit Rathee
2) Mumbai Indians (MI)
Retained:
Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, Allah Ghazanfar Released:Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Shrijith, Karn Sharma, Bevon Jacobs, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur
Trade:Arjun Tendulkar to LSG
3) Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
Retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmed, Khaleel Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjanpreet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary
Released:Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddarth, Rachin Ravindra, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Matheesha Pathirana Trades:Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran to RR-
4) Delhi Capitals (DC)
Retained:Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Abhishek Porel, Axar Patel, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera
Released:Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande
Trade:Donovan Ferreira to RR
5) Rajasthan Royals (RR)
Retained:Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Shubham Dubey, Lhuan Dre-Pretorius, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, D Ferreira, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Yudhvir Singh, Kwen Maphaka, Nandre Burger
Released:Kunal Singh Rathore, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya
Trades:Sanju Samson to CSK, Nitish Rana to DC
6) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Retained:Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik
Released:Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Moeen Ali, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson
Trade:Mayank Markande to MI
7) Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Retained:Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari
Released:Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Mohammad Shami, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa
Trade:Mohammad Shami to LSG
8) Gujarat Titans (GT)
Retained:Shubman Gill, 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
Trade:Sherfane Rutherford to MI
9) Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)
Retained:Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, M Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh
Released:Aryan Juyal, David Miller, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi
Trade:Shardul Thakur to MI
10) Punjab Kings (PBKS)
Retained:Shreyas Iyer, Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Shashank Singh, Pyla Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Musheer Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur
Released:Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dubey