The mini auction ahead of the IPL 2026 season will be held on December 16. Here’s everything you need to know about the big day, including rules, purse and slots remaining, and squads for each team.
IPL 2026 auction: Start time
The IPL 2026 auction is scheduled to start at 1pm local time in Abu Dhabi (2.30pm IST, 9am GMT) on Tuesday, December 16.
IPL 2026 auction: Rules
All ten IPL franchises submitted their retention lists by November 15. Punjab Kings retained 21 of their players from the last edition, the most by any side, followed by Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans, who retained 20 each. Kolkata Knight Riders, meanwhile, retained just 12 players from IPL 2025, the least of the lot, and thus will have the most slots available to fill.
A total of 359 cricketers, including 16 capped Indians and 99 capped overseas players, are part of the auction pool and will go under the hammer. Each team can have a maximum of 25 players - and a minimum of 18 - on their roster, with a cap of eight overseas stars.
No RTM option is available to the teams since this is a mini-auction.
Also Read: IPL 2026 auction: Full list of overseas players with base price
IPL 2026 auction: Purse remaining for each team
| Team | Purse remaining (in INR crore) |
| Chennai Super Kings | 43.40 |
| Delhi Capitals | 21.80 |
| Gujarat Titans | 12.90 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 64.30 |
| Lucknow Super Giants | 22.95 |
| Mumbai Indians | 2.75 |
| Punjab Kings | 11.50 |
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 16.40 |
| Rajasthan Royals | 16.05 |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 25.50 |
Also read: IPL 2026 auction: Five overseas superstars who could go unsold
IPL 2026 auction: Slots available for each team
| Team | Total slots available | Overseas slots available |
| Chennai Super Kings | 9 | 4 |
| Delhi Capitals | 8 | 5 |
| Gujarat Titans | 5 | 4 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 13 | 6 |
| Lucknow Super Giants | 6 | 4 |
| Mumbai Indians | 5 | 1 |
| Punjab Kings | 4 | 2 |
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 8 | 2 |
| Rajasthan Royals | 9 | 1 |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 10 | 2 |
Also Read: IPL 2026 auction – who needs what? The missing links for each team
IPL 2026 auction: Squads ahead of the auction
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brewis, Shivam Dube, Urvil Patel, Noor Ahmad, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Khaleel Ahmed, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Mukesh Choudhary, Jamie Overton, Gurjapneet Singh, Anshul Kamboj.
Delhi Capitals: Nitish Rana, 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, Mukesh Kumar.
Gujarat Titans: 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.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy.
Lucknow Super Giants: Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshin Kulkarni, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke, Mayank Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mitchell Marsh, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Prince Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Ahmed.
Mumbai Indians: Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford, Mayank Markande, Allah Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Will Jacks.
Punjab Kings: Arshdeep Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Singh 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.
Rajasthan Royals: Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dhruv Jurel, Jofra Archer, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Nandre Burger, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yudhvir Singh Charak.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Jitesh Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Bethell, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Dar, Swapnil Singh.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins, R Smaran, Travis Head, Zeeshan Ansari.
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