IPL 2026 auction: what the ten teams have, and who they will be desperate to get

Players retained: MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson (traded in from RR), 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

Purse remaining: INR 43.40 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 9 (4 overseas)

What they need: An elite overseas allrounder or finisher will be at the top of CSK's wishlist. In the previous auction, they bid furiously for Liam Livingstone but lost out to RCB. Having released Matheesha Pathirana, they will target other overseas fast bowlers if they can't get the Sri Lanka slinger back at a lower price.

There are no like-for-like replacements for Ravindra Jadeja in Indian domestic cricket. They may have to take a punt on emerging talents like Prashant Veer, who impressed in the UP T20 league and more recently attended a trial with CSK at their academy in Chennai.

Players retained: Nitish Rana (traded in from RR), 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

Purse remaining: INR 21.80 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 8 (5 overseas)

What they need: A reliable opener to partner KL Rahul in place of the hit-or-miss Jake Fraser-McGurk and Faf du Plessis, who has opted out of IPL 2026. DC also require back-ups for the injury-prone T Natarajan and Mitchell Starc, who will enter IPL 2026 after a potentially heavy workload for Australia in the Ashes.

Natarajan operated in the lower 120-kph range in the Tamil Nadu Premier League and blew hot and cold in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The release of Mohit Sharma, who has retired since, has created another hole in the bowling attack.

They could look for a middle-order overseas batter too, considering they had Harry Brook, who was replaced by Sediqullah Atal. They have Nitish Rana and Sameer Rizvi, but an overseas allrounder could still be an option.

Players retained: 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

Purse remaining: INR 12.90 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 5 (4 overseas)

What they need: Middle-order batters or finishers. Sherfane Rutherford has been traded to MI while Rahul Tewatia is working his way back from injury and has not played any competitive cricket since IPL 2025. Their other Indian finisher, Shahrukh Khan, is so out of form that he has been dropped from Tamil Nadu's squads for all formats during the domestic season. GT could also look at finding an overseas bowling partner or back-up for Kagiso Rabada.

Rashid Khan's up-and-down form could also make them look for an overseas spin-bowling allrounder - someone like Michael Bracewell, potentially.

Players retained: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy

Purse remaining: INR 64.30 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 13 (6 overseas)

What they need: An explosive overseas opener who could also double up as a keeper, after they let go of both Quinton de Kock and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. KKR have an unusually high purse at a mini auction and look poised to bring in Cameron Green as a replacement for Andre Russell, who has retired from the IPL and has joined KKR's support staff. Another key requirement is at least one if not two overseas fast bowlers, as they have released a host of quicks including Anrich Nortje and Spencer Johnson. They also need an Indian wicketkeeper unless they are fine with the part-time option of Angkrish Raghuvanshi.

Players retained: Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar (traded in from MI), Arshin Kulkarni, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke, Mayank Yadav, Mohammed Shami (traded in from SRH), Mitchell Marsh, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Prince Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Ahmed

Purse remaining: INR 22.95 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 6 (4 overseas)

What they need: An overseas finisher to slot in for David Miller and support Abdul Samad and Ayush Badoni. While LSG continue to be stacked with bowlers, their premier quicks Avesh Khan and Mayank Yadav are currently recuperating from injuries, so they need back-up Indian seamers. LSG also need a replacement for Ravi Bishnoi, though they have left-arm spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Manimaran Siddharth to complement mystery spinner Digvesh Rathi.

Players retained: Shardul Thakur (traded in from LSG), Sherfane Rutherford (traded in from GT), Mayank Markande (traded in from KKR), AM 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

Purse remaining: INR 2.75 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 5 (1 overseas)

What they need: MI's squad already drips with depth and power. But they do need few Indian back-ups: a left-arm spinner who can bat, a top-order batter, and a left-arm fast bowler, for example. They have the smallest purse at the auction.

Players retained: 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

Purse remaining: INR 11.50 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 4 (2 overseas)

What they need: A disruptor like Josh Inglis, who was released after he confirmed only partial availability for IPL 2026, and extra spin-bowling options including an overseas allrounder to replace Glenn Maxwell. They could also look for a back-up overseas fast bowler. Otherwise, their XII is settled and they don't have much money to spend, so expect a quiet auction for them as well.

Players retained: Donovan Ferreira (traded in from DC), Ravindra Jadeja (traded in from CSK), Sam Curran (traded in from CSK), 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

Purse remaining: INR 16.05 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 9 (1 overseas)

What they need: An Indian or overseas wristspinner to partner Jadeja - they have just one overseas slot to fill - will be RR's top priority. If they don't have enough money to pick an established Indian wristspinner, they may veer towards promising rookies like Yash Punja, the tall Karnataka legspinner who has been a support bowler for them. Having released local tearaway Ashok Sharma, RR may try to get him back after he topped the charts in the league phase of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, with 19 strikes in seven games.

Players retained: 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

Purse remaining: INR 16.40 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 8 (2 overseas)

What they need: An overseas fast-bowling back-up for Josh Hazlewood, who is currently injured, and a reserve middle-order batter to replace Livingstone, who was released. RCB may also require a back-up for left-arm seamer Yash Dayal, who has not played any competitive cricket since IPL 2025 and skipped the UPT20 league more recently.

Players retained: 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

Purse remaining: INR 25.50 crore out of INR 125 crore

Slots remaining: 10 (2 overseas)

What they need: An experienced spinner to combine with Zeeshan Ansari or Harsh Dubey and an experienced fast bowler to replace Shami, who was traded to LSG. Bowlers with good defensive skills may be on SRH's shopping list. They may also be on the lookout for allrounders and middle-order batters after letting go of the likes of Wiaan Mulder and Abhinav Manohar.