IPL 2026 Retained Players Full Team-Wise Best List before Auction
From Virat Kohli to Shubman Gill, here’s the best predicted team-wise breakdown of the IPL 2026 retained players list.
There’s so happening in Indian cricket currently that there is hardly any time to relax for the fans. Right from celebrating the success of the Asia Cup 2025 to the Indian team currently dominating the West Indies Test series, to selectors exploding a bomb during India vs Australia ODI and T20 series squad announcement, to finally the 10 franchise teams brainstorming their ideas for the player retentions ahead of the IPL 2026 Mini Auction.
With so much cricketing action happening, it sometimes becomes difficult for fans to focus on everything. But of all those things, if there is one area that always excites the fans across the globe, it is the Indian Premier League. The IPL will be entering its 19th edition, and the first thing that everyone is currently focused on is the IPL 2026 Mini Auction, and the Pre-Auction formalities of all 10 teams from a retentions and releases point of view.
Since it is a Mini Auction, teams will not make truck-load changes. They already built a solid core last year in IPL 2025 Mega Auction, so all they will focus on in the Auction is fine-tuning the squad. The teams will also be given freedom to retain as many players as they want as long as their budget is intact. So, since we have great insight on the players that each team are likely to retain and release, let’s look at the full team-wise retained players list for all 10 teams ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 Mini Auction.
IPL 2026 Retained Players Full Team-Wise Best List Before Auction
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Best Retained Players 2026 IPL
Batters
- Andre Siddharth
- Ayush Mhatre
- Dewald Brevis (o)
- Ruturaj Gaikwad (c)
- Shaik Rasheed
Wks
- MS Dhoni
- Vansh Bedi
- Urvil Patel
All-rounders
- Rachin Ravindra (o)
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Sam Curran (o)
- Shivam Dube
Bowlers
- Anshul Kamboj
- Khaleel Ahmed
- Matheesha Pathirana (o)
- Nathan Ellis (o)
- Noor Ahmad (o)
- Ramkrishna Ghosh
Starting with the CSK team, the team should retain a total of 18 players, including 6 Overseas players for IPL 2026. Among the key players, CSK should retain the core comprising Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Shivam Dube, Dewald Brevis, Khaleel Ahmed, Noor Ahmad, Matheesha Pathirana, and Anshul Kamboj. Overall, with 18 expected players, CSK should have roughly 29 Cr in the Auction for buying a maximum of 7 more players.
Delhi Capitals (DC) Best Retained Players 2026
Batters
- Ashutosh Sharma
- Faf du Plessis (o)
- Jake Fraser-McGurk (o)
- Sameer Rizvi
Wks
- Abhishek Porel
- Donovan Ferreira (o)
- KL Rahul
- Tristan Stubbs (o)
All-rounders
- Axar Patel (c)
- Vipraj Nigam
Bowlers
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Mitchell Starc (o)
- Mukesh Kumar
- T Natarajan
Talking about the Delhi Capitals, the team should retain 14 players, including 5 Overseas players, for IPL 2026. IPL 2025 was a decent affair for Delhi, but there were many underperformers in the team. Among key players that Delhi should retain, we are looking at the likes of Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, Abhishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, and Vipraj Nigam. Overall, with 14 expected retained players, Delhi Capitals will have roughly 19 Cr to buy a maximum of 11 more players in the Auction.
Gujarat Titans (GT) Best Retained Players 2026
Batters
- Sai Sudharsan
- Shahrukh Khan
- Sherfane Rutherford (o)
- Shubman Gill (c)
Wks
- Anuj Rawat
- Jos Buttler (o)
All-rounders
- Arshad Khan
- Mahipal Lomror
- Manav Suthar
- Nishant Sindhu
- Rahul Tewatia
- Washington Sundar
Bowlers
- Kagiso Rabada (o)
- Gerald Coetzee (o)
- Kulwant Kejroliya
- Mohammed Siraj
- Prasidh Krishna
- R Sai Kishore
- Rashid Khan (o)
The Gujarat Titans played above their weight in IPL 2025, and were able to qualify for the Playoffs, mostly on account of their terrific top-order. The team is likely to retain a total of 19 players, including just 5 Overseas players for IPL 2026. While the Indian core is sorted for the Gujarat Titans, the Overseas core needs a revamp, and to add weightage to their Overseas contingent, the GT team will roughly have around 12 Cr in their Auction kitty.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Best Retained Players 2026 IPL
Batters
- Ajinkya Rahane (c)
- Ramandeep Singh
- Rinku Singh
Wks
- Angkrish Raghuvanshi
- Quinton de Kock (o)
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz (o)
All-rounders
- Andre Russell (o)
- Anukul Roy
- Sunil Narine (o)
Bowlers
- Anrich Nortje (o)
- Harshit Rana
- Mayank Markande
- Umran Malik
- Vaibhav Arora
- Varun Chakravarthy
The Kolkata Knight Riders saw a major dip in their performance in IPL 2025, after they revamped their squad last year. The team may want to rectify the mistakes they made last year in the Auction, and thus should retain a total of just 15 players, including 5 Overseas players for IPL 2026. The team will make some tough decisions if they are serious about winning the tournament next year. If they release some over-priced players, they should roughly have around 36 Cr in their Auction kitty.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Best Retained Players 2026
Batters
- Abdul Samad
- Aiden Markram (o)
- Ayush Badoni
- David Miller (o)
- Himmat Singh
Wks
- Nicholas Pooran (o)
- Rishabh Pant (c)
All-rounders
- Arshin Kulkarni
- Mitchell Marsh (o)
- Shahbaz Ahmed
Bowlers
- Akash Deep
- Akash Singh
- Avesh Khan
- Digvesh Rathi
- Prince Yadav
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Shardul Thakur
- Will O’Rourke (o)
The Lucknow Super Giants should retain a total of 18 players ahead of the IPL 2026 Mini Auction, including the most expensive player in IPL history, Rishabh Pant. The team will retain their core, which mostly comprises Overseas batters like Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, etc., and a few Indian players like Rishabh Pant, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, etc. Based on their retention strategy, they should roughly have around 18 Cr in their Auction.
Mumbai Indians (MI) Best Retained Players 2026 IPL
Batters
- Bevon Jacobs (o)
- Rohit Sharma
- Suryakumar Yadav
- Tilak Varma
Wks
- Robin Minz
- Ryan Rickelton (o)
All-rounders
- Arjun Tendulkar
- Corbin Bosch (o)
- Hardik Pandya (c)
- Mitchell Santner (o)
- Naman Dhir
- Raj Bawa
- Will Jacks (o)
Bowlers
- Allah Ghazanfar (o)
- Ashwani Kumar
- Deepak Chahar
- Jasprit Bumrah
- Karn Sharma
- Trent Boult (o)
- Vignesh Puthur
The Mumbai Indians team came back to form last year after a poor show from 2021 to 2024. The team has built a strong core, and they should retain a total of 20 players, including 7 Overseas players, for IPL 2026. Not only Indian players, the Mumbai Indians are pretty much sorted in the Overseas players department too. The team has a solid core in place, led by players like Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, etc. Overall, the Mumbai Indians should roughly have 7 Cr in their Auction kitty with these retentions.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) Best Retained Players 2026
Batters
- Mitchell Owen (o)
- Nehal Wadhera
- Priyansh Arya
- Pyla Avinash
- Shashank Singh
- Shreyas Iyer (c)
Wks
- Josh Inglis (o)
- Prabsimran Singh
All-rounders
- Azmatullah Omarzai (o)
- Harpreet Brar
- Marco Jansen (o)
- Marcus Stoinis (o)
- Musheer Khan
- Suryansh Shedge
Bowlers
- Arshdeep Singh
- Lockie Ferguson (o)
- Kuldeep Sen
- Pravin Dubey
- Vyshak Vijaykumar
- Yash Thakur
- Yuzvendra Chahal
Coming to the Punjab Kings, the team built a solid young core in the last Mega Auction. The team has solid emerging talent, and that will help the team grow for years to come. This actually looks like a turnaround story for the Punjab Kings, who are devoid of an IPL trophy till now. The team should retain almost 21 players for IPL 2026, and may only release a few Overseas players like Glenn Maxwell. Overall, basis the retentions, PBKS should roughly have around 10 Cr in their Auction kitty.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) Best Retained Players 2026
Batters
- Nitish Rana
- Shimron Hetmyer (o)
- Shubham Dubey
- Vaibhav Suryavanshi
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
Wks
- Dhruv Jurel
- Sanju Samson (c)
All-rounders
- Riyan Parag
- Wanindu Hasaranga (o)
Bowlers
- Akash Madhwal
- Jofra Archer (o)
- Kwena Maphaka (o)
- Nandre Burger (o)
- Sandeep Sharma
- Tushar Deshpande
- Yudhvir Charak
The first IPL title winners, Rajasthan Royals, should retain a total of 16 players ahead of the IPL 2026 Auction, including 5 Overseas players. The team is filled with quality Indian batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Dhruv Jurel, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, and Riyan Rarag. This is a terrific top 5, and probably the only team to have a solid Indian top 5. Overall, with an expected 16 retentions, RR should roughly have around 6 Cr in their Auction, which they will use to buy backup Overseas players.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Best Retained Players 2026 IPL
Batters
- Devdutt Padikkal
- Mayank Agarwal
- Rajat Patidar (c)
- Swastik Chikara
- Tim David (o)
- Virat Kohli
Wks
- Jitesh Sharma
- Phil Salt (o)
All-rounders
- Jacob Bethell (o)
- Krunal Pandya
- Manoj Bhandage
- Romario Shephard (o)
- Swapnil Singh
Bowlers
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Josh Hazlewood (o)
- Lungi Ngidi (o)
- Nuwan Thushara (o)
- Rasikh Dar
- Suyash Sharma
- Yash Dayal
The champions of IPL 2025, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru team, should retain a total of 20 players, including 7 Overseas players. Since they won the trophy last year, we should only see some minor changes in the squad. There is a solid core in place comprising Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, etc. Since the team is likely to retain 7 Overseas players, they should roughly have around 14 Cr for the Auction.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Best Retained Players 2026
Batters & Wks
- Abhinav Manohar
- Aniket Verma
- Atharva Taide
- Smaran Ravichandran
- Travis Head (o)
Wks
- Heinrich Klaasen (o)
- Ishan Kishan
All-rounders:
- Abhishek Sharma
- Harsh Dubey
- Kamindu Mendis (o)
- Nitish Reddy
Bowlers
- Ehsan Malinga (o)
- Harshal Patel
- Jaydev Unadkat
- Pat Cummins (o&c)
- Simarjeet Singh
- Zeeshan Ansari
Finally, talking about Sunrisers Hyderabad, the team should retain a total of 17 players, including just 5 overseas players. The SRH team has a solid core of Overseas and Indian talent that they will retain for sure. The sure-shot Overseas retentions are Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen, and Travis Head. Whereas among sure-shot Indian retentions, we should see Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Reddy, and Harshal Patel. The team might debate on the retention of Mohammed Shami and Rahul Chahar, but since both have lost the zip, they shall be released. Overall, SRH should roughly have 22 Cr with these retentions.
So, that’s about the best retained players list for all 10 teams for IPL 2026.
Thanks for reading! Looking at all 10 teams best retained players list for IPL 2026, what’s your take on it? Please email your thoughts to business@cricalytics.com.
