IPL 2026 retention: Full list of players retained and released

The IPL 2026 retention list, revealing the retained and released players by every Indian Premier League team ahead of the upcoming auction, was officially announced on Saturday.

Among the 10 IPL cricket teams, Punjab Kings retained the most number of players with 21 while Kolkata Knight Riders kept hold of the least number of players with 12.

KKR released Andre Russell, who has been part of the team since 2014, as well as Venkatesh Iyer, who was the franchise’s most expensive buy in IPL history last season.

Chennai Super Kings are also expected to be active in the upcoming auction, having lost 13 players from last season, including the now-retired Ravichandran Ashwin. MS Dhoni was retained.

Glenn Maxwell, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Ravi Bishnoi were among the other big names released by their respective teams.

In contrast to the virtual reset that comes with retentions before mega auctions - where only a handful of core players can be held on to - franchises are allowed to retain the bulk of their squads prior to mini auctions, provided they stayed within the INR 120 crore purse and the 18-25 player roster limit.

Reigning champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru have retained 17 players of the champion side from last season, including Virat Kohli.

Several player trades have been confirmed ahead of the IPL 2026 season, leading to notable changes across multiple franchises.

CSK traded Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to RR for Sanju Samson. Donovan Ferreira also returned to RR from DC in a trade with Nitish Rana.

Shardul Thakur moved to MI from LSG for Arjun Tendulkar. LSG also bolstered their pace battery by bringing in Mohammed Shami via an all-cash trade from SRH.

Similarly, West Indies all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford was acquired by MI from GT. Mayank Markande also returned to MI from KKR.

The trade window is still open.

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