IPL 2026 players list: As IPL franchises announced their list of retained and released players for the 2026 season, a few names surprised fans. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) let go of Matheesha Pathirana, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) released big names like Andre Russell, Quinton de Kock and Venkatesh Iyer. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) also sent Ravi Bishnoi back into the auction pool.
Sanju Samson made a historic move to Chennai Super Kings in what has become the franchise’s biggest trade deal ever. CSK brought him in with the hope of planning their future after their legendary icon MS Dhoni. Samson was bought for Rs 18 crore and the move will bring him geographically closer to home after leaving Rajasthan Royals. In return, CSK had to part with one of their strongest players over the last decade – Ravindra Jadeja.
Below is the franchise-wise summary of retained and released players.
Rajasthan Royals – Retained and released players
Released Players: Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana,, Kunal Singh Rathore, Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Ashok Sharma
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.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) – Retained and released players
Released players: Shardul Thakur, David Miller, Aryan Juyal, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi
Retained players: Rishabh Pant, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Himmat Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahamad, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, M. Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Mohammed Shami
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) – Retained and released players
Retained players: Ruturaj Gaikwad, MS Dhoni, Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Anshul Kamboj, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shivam Dube, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Gurjapneet Singh, Sanju Samson.
Released Players: Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, Andre Siddarth, Rachin Ravindra, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Matheesha Pathirana, Devon Conway, Ravichandran Ashwin
Punjab Kings (PBKS) – Retained and released players
Released Players: Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Glenn Maxwell, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dubey
Retained players: Shreyas Iyer, Nehal Wadhera, Vishnu Vinod, Harnoor Pannu, Pyla Avinash, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Harpreet Brar, Marco Jansen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Priyansh Arya, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Mitch Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) – Retained and released players
Released player: Mayank Agarwal, Swastik Chhikara, Tim Seifert, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Mohit Rathee
Retained players: Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh
Delhi Capitals (DC) – Retained and released players
Released players: Donovan Ferreira, Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande
Retained players: KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana
Mumbai Indians (MI) – Retained and released players
Released players: Arjun Tendulkar, Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Shrijith, Karn Sharma, Bevon Jacobs, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Lizaad Williams, Vignesh Puthur
Retained players: Rohit Sharma, Surya Kumar Yadav, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, Allah Ghazanfar, Mayank Markande, Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) – Retained and released players
Released players: Mohammad Shami, Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Taide, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa
Retained players: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari
Gujarat Titans (GT) – Retained and released players
Released players: Sherfane Rutherford, Mahipal Lomror, Karim Janat, Dasun Shanaka, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya
Retained players: Shubman Gill (C), 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.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) – Retained and released players
Released players: Mayank Markande, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, Luvnith Sisodia, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Moeen Ali, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson
Retained players: Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Umran Malik
What are the IPL retention rules?
In a mega auction, teams can retain only a limited number of Indian and overseas players. But this year’s auction is not a mega auction, so teams are allowed to retain as many players as they want. Still, each squad can have a maximum of 25 players, and every franchise gets a purse of around Rs 120 crore.
NOTE: This list is still being updated by the franchises and the names mentioned above are as of 7:30 pm.
