IPL 2026 Ranking Each Team Best Playing 11 Ahead of Auction
From defending champions RCB to revamped CSK, explore the best playing 11 ranking for each team ahead of the IPL 2026 Mini Auction.
The IPL 2026 has kick-started with a bang, with all 10 teams announcing their official retained players ahead of the Indian Premier League Mini Auction. A total of 173 players have been retained by the 10 teams, which is almost 17 players on average retained by each team. Kolkata Knight Riders have retained the least number of players at 12, and Punjab Kings have retained the most number of players at 21.
With a Mini Auction being scheduled this year, it was natural for all 10 teams to retain as many players as possible. Hence, all 10 teams retained their core of 10-12 players at least, with the rest being the backups. This means most teams already have a settled playing 11, even before the Auction. This is great news as teams have a settled playing 11, and they will most likely fill minor gaps in the Auction.
But which team will have to do the most and the least hard work in the Auction? Well, this can be identified if we look at their current strongest playing 11 before the IPL 2026 Mini Auction. If a team has a good playing 11 ranking, they will have to make the least efforts in the Auction, and vice versa. So, let’s analyse the retained squad of all 10 teams, and look at their best playing 11 ranking ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 Mini Auction.
IPL 2026: Ranking Each Team Best Playing 11 Ahead of Auction – Ranked 1 to 10
#10: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Sunil Narine
- Ajinkya Rahane (c)
- Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk)
- Manish Pandey
- Rinku Singh
- Ramandeep Singh
- Rovman Powell
- Anukul Roy
- Harshit Rana
- Vaibhav Arora
- Varun Chakravarthy
- Umran Malik – Impact Player
Starting at number 10, this should not be a surprise, as we have the KKR team with their best playing 11 before the Auction. The KKR team released many quality players ahead of the Auction, and as a result, their playing 11 has taken a beating. The team retained 12 players, and that means they don’t even have a backup at this stage. Even from their retained players, there are weak links like Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, and Umran Malik, who ideally wouldn’t even make it to their first-choice 11.
#9: Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Aiden Markram
- Mitchell Marsh
- Nicholas Pooran
- Rishabh Pant (c&wk)
- Matthew Breetzke
- Ayush Badoni
- Abdul Samad
- Shahbaz Ahmed
- Avesh Khan
- Digvesh Rathi
- Mohammed Shami
- Mayank Yadav – Impact Player
For number 9, we have the Lucknow Super Giants team, and if we observe their playing 11, the team is very much dependent on their Indian bowlers. This is a major red flag, as their Indian bowlers lack the desired quality, and are also injury-prone like Shami, Mayank, Avesh, etc.. While LSG can’t change the playing 11 entirely in the Auction, they would ideally want an extra Indian batter in place of Matthew Breetzke, so that they can play an Overseas bowler in place of Avesh or Mayank.
#8: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Abhishek Sharma
- Travis Head
- Ishan Kishan (wk)
- Heinrich Klaasen
- Nitish Reddy
- Aniket Verma
- Brydon Carse
- Harsh Dubey
- Pat Cummins (c)
- Harshal Patel
- Jaydev Unadkat
- Zeeshan Ansari – Impact Player
For number 8, we have the Sunrisers Hyderabad team, and it is the lack of a good bowling attack that is letting them down currently. Make no mistake, even with their existing retained players, SRH have one of the most dangerous batting attacks in the competition that can tear apart any bowling attack. But beyond Pat and Harshal, the bowling lacks depth, and if they don’t address this in the Auction, it will be extremely difficult for them to have a successful tournament.
#7: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Ayush Mhatre
- Sanju Samson
- Ruturaj Gaikwad (c)
- Dewald Brevis
- Shivam Dube
- MS Dhoni (wk)
- Jamie Overton
- Anshul Kamboj
- Khaleel Ahmed
- Nathan Ellis
- Noor Ahmad
- Shreyas Gopal – Impact Player
For number 7, we have the Chennai Super Kings team, and their playing 11 looks slightly better than what we had seen in 2025. However, two major changes in their squad affect the team balance drastically. The team traded in Sanju Samson, which makes their batting strong. But having traded out Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran, the CSK team not only lost a good batting depth but also good bowling options. So, if there is one thing that CSK will address in the Auction, it is the addition of 2-3 good All-rounders in the side.
#6: Delhi Capitals (DC) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Abhishek Porel
- KL Rahul (wk)
- Nitish Rana
- Sameer Rizvi
- Tristan Stubbs
- Ashutosh Sharma
- Axar Patel (c)
- Vipraj Nigam
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Mitchell Starc
- T Natarajan
- Dushmantha Chameera – Impact Player
At number 6, we have the Delhi Capitals team, and they have done a fairly decent job with their retentions. Barring a couple of changes, they have a balanced playing 11 with solid batting till 8, and 6 solid bowling options. Looking at their team composition, Sameer Rizvi and Dushmantha Chameera seem the two replaceable players, and given they can still accommodate 2 Overseas players, that will fairly balance their side really well.
#5: Rajasthan Royals (RR) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Vaibhav Suryavanshi
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Riyan Parag
- Dhruv Jurel (wk)
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Shimron Hetmyer
- Donovan Ferreira
- Sam Curran
- Jofra Archer
- Sandeep Sharma
- Yudhvir Charak
- Tushar Deshpande – Impact Player
For number 5, we have a surprise in the form of the Rajasthan Royals, and their pre-Auction strategy is the reason why their 2026 playing 11 looks much stronger than 2025, even before the Auction kicks in. Having released Sanju Samson, the addition of Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, and Donovan Ferreira balances the playing 11 solidly for the team. They now have solid batting till 8-9, and almost 7 bowling options, including Riyan. The only thing they are currently lacking is the lack of good quality in their pace department, which seems to be below-par at the moment.
#4: Gujarat Titans (GT) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Sai Sudharsan
- Shubman Gill (c)
- Jos Buttler (wk)
- Washington Sundar
- Shahrukh Khan
- Glenn Phillips
- Rahul Tewatia
- Rashid Khan
- Kagiso Rabada
- Mohammed Siraj
- R Sai Kishore
- Prasidh Krishna – Impact Player
Number 4 belongs to the Gujarat Titans team, and they almost repeat their 2025 playing 11. In IPL 2025, the Gujarat Titans had Sherfane Rutherford, and for IPL 2026, they currently have Glenn Phillips. With this being a like-for-like change, we see almost an identical playing 11, with Kagiso Rabada’s addition making it stronger. What GT need in the Auction is a solid All-rounder finisher that will make this team much stronger.
#3: Punjab Kings (PBKS) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Priyansh Arya
- Prabsimran Singh (wk)
- Shreyas Iyer (c)
- Nehal Wadhera
- Marcus Stoinis
- Shashank Singh
- Mitchell Owen
- Azmatullah Omarzai
- Harpreet Brar
- Marco Jansen
- Arshdeep Singh
- Yuzvendra Chahal – Impact Player
Number 3 will see the IPL 2025 Runner-up, the Punjab Kings, who will almost replicate their strongest playing 11 from IPL 2025. The only major difference in their current playing 11 is the absence of Josh Inglis, who has been released by the team on account of availability issues. With Inglis gone, the team still has a potential replacement in the form of attacking Mitchell Owen, but Owen is a newbie in IPL, and his credentials aren’t proven yet. Even then, the team has batting till 10, and almost 7 bowling options.
#2: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Virat Kohli
- Phil Salt
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Rajat Patidar (c)
- Tim David
- Jitesh Sharma (wk)
- Romario Shephard
- Krunal Pandya
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Josh Hazlewood
- Yash Dayal
- Suyash Sharma – Impact Player
For number 2, we have the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and they lose the top spot to the Mumbai Indians, who look slightly better on paper than the RCB team. The RCB team almost replicate their 2025 winning squad, albeit with two changes. While Devdutt Padikkal replaces Mayank in their strongest 11, Shepherd replaces Livingstone technically. This playing 11 has solid batting till 8, and 6 proper bowling options. However, the inexperience of Suyash and Yash is still an addressable point for the team.
#1: Mumbai Indians (MI) Pre-Auction Strongest Playing 11 for IPL 2026
- Rohit Sharma
- Ryan Rickelton (wk)
- Suryakumar Yadav
- Tilak Varma
- Will Jacks
- Hardik Pandya (c)
- Naman Dhir
- Shardul Thakur
- Deepak Chahar
- Allah Ghazanfar
- Jasprit Bumrah
- Trent Boult – Impact Player
At numero uno, we have the Mumbai Indians team, and they are the only team that will go into the Auction without a need for the Auction. The MI team looks perfect from almost every angle. There is a solid mix of experience and youth; they have solid batting till almost the number 9 position, and they have almost 7-8 bowling options. They have the flexibility to play Santner or Ghazanfar, and can also look to play a spinner in place of Deepak Chahar or Shardul Thakur. This great flexibility and backup options give MI a solid edge over others before the Auction.
Thanks for reading! Looking at the IPL 2026 playing 11 ranking for all 10 teams, which team looks the strongest? Please email your thoughts to business@cricalytics.com, or mention them in the comments section below.
