IPL 2026: How the ten teams stack up after the auction
Here's what the squads look like, with their strengths and weaknesses
ESPNcricinfo staff
16-Dec-2025 • 2 hrs ago
Chennai Super Kings
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: CSK entered the mini-auction with the second-biggest purse of INR 43.40 crore and spent two thirds of it on just two uncapped players. They signed Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma for a staggering INR 14.2 crore each, a paradigm shift from CSK's longstanding experience-first approach. They picked Akeal Hosein and Matt Henry as smart plug-and-play options depending on the surface at Chepauk, but IPL inexperience runs through the middle order and bowling attack.
Possible best XII: 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Ayush Mhatre, 3 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Dewald Brevis, 6 Kartik Sharma, 7 Prashant Veer, 8 MS Dhoni (wk), 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Matt Henry/Akeal Hosein, 11 Noor Ahmad, 11 Khaleel Ahmed.
Full CSK squad
- Batters: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Short
- Wicketkeepers: Sanju Samson, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma
- Allrounders: Shivam Dube, Zak Foulkes, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Aman Khan, Prashant Veer
- Spinners: Noor Ahmad, Rahul Chahar
- Fast bowlers: Khaleel Ahmed, Nathan Ellis, Matt Henry, Gurjapneet Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: RCB went as high as INR 23.50 crore for Venkatesh Iyer before KKR landed the winning bid last year. They've now brought him in for less than a third of that price (INR 7 crore), and he could come into their line-up at No. 3, though he would have to displace Devdutt Padikkal to do so. The fact that Iyer is the only plausible new entrant to RCB's best XII underlines the defending champions' squad stability, Beyond that, Jacob Duffy slots in as cover for Josh Hazlewood, while Mangesh Yadav, a 140-plus left-arm quick, provides like-for-like back-up for Yash Dayal. RCB, however, lack wristspinning back-up to Suyash Sharma.
Possible best XII: 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Phil Salt, 3 Venkatesh Iyer, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Suyash Sharma, 11 Josh Hazlewood, 12 Yash Dayal.
Full RCB squad
- Batters: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal
- Wicketkeepers: Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Jordan Cox
- Allrounders: Jacob Bethell, Venkatesh Iyer, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Romario Shepherd, Satwik Deswal, Kanish Chouhan, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal
- Spinners: Suyash Sharma
- Fast bowlers: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Salam, Mangesh Yadav, Yash Dayal, Jacob Duffy, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: Despite having the third-biggest available purse, SRH sprung into action pretty late. Liam Livingstone, for INR 13 crore, was their only big purchase. They signed plenty of Indian domestic seamers, but it needs to be seen if any of them can fill the gap left by Mohammed Shami's exit. Their spin attack, too, looks inexperienced, but there is a new flavour to it with the addition of the left-arm wristspinner Krains Fuletra. They went until INR 7 crore in the bidding war for Ravi Bishnoi but eventually lost out to Rajasthan Royals.
Probable XII: 1 Travis Head, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 5 Heinrich Klaasen, 6 Aniket Verma, 7 Liam Livingstone, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Harsh Dubey/Krains Fuletra, 10 Harshal Patel, 11 Shivam Mavi/Zeeshan Ansari, 12 Jaydev Unadkat.
Full SRH squad
- Batters: Travis Head, Aniket Verma, R Smaran
- Wicketkeepers: Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Salil Arora
- Allrounders: Liam Livingstone, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Harsh Dubey, Jack Edwards, Shivang Kumar, Krains Fuletra
- Spinners: Zeeshan Ansari, Amit Kumar
- Fast bowlers: Eshan Malinga, Jaydev Unadkat, Shivam Mavi, Onkar Tarmale, Sakib Hussain, Praful Hinge
Mumbai Indians
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: MI came in with a stable squad and were among the less-busy teams at the auction. They had five slots left, and bid for only ten players - one of them being Cameron Green. They got four players, including Quinton de Kock and the left-arm spin allrounder Atharva Ankolekar, at base price. Theirs is a squad filled with plenty of allrounders, many of whom can fit in as a batter or bowler alone.
Possible best XII: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Naman Dhir, 7 Sherfane Rutherford/Mitchell Santner, 8 Shardul Thakur/Deepak Chahar, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Ashwani Kumar/Mayank Markande, 11 AM Ghazanfar, 12 Trent Boult
Full MI squad
- Batters: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Danish Malewar
- Wicketkeepers: Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock
- Allrounders: Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford, Corbin Bosch, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raj Bawa, Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Atharva Ankolekar
- Spinners: Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma
- Fast bowlers: Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Mohammed Izhar
Gujarat Titans
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (7 overseas)
Hot take: GT came into the auction with INR 12.90 crore in their purse and not many holes to fill. Their biggest buy was Jason Holder, who will compete with Glenn Phillips for a spot in the starting XII. In Tom Banton and Luke Wood, they signed decent back-ups at base prices. Their other two buys were uncapped Indian fast bowlers Ashok Sharma and Prithvi Raj Yarra. GT are one of only two teams to not maximise their overseas quota.
Probable XII: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Sai Sudharsan, 3 Jos Buttler (wk), 4 Washington Sundar, 5 Shahrukh Khan, 6 Glenn Phillips/Jason Holder, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Sai Kishore, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Prasidh Krishna, 12 Mohammed Siraj.
Full GT squad
- Batters: Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Tom Banton, Glenn Phillips, Shahrukh Khan
- Wicketkeepers: Jos Buttler, Anuj Rawat, Kumar Kushagra
- Allrounders: Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Rahul Tewatia, Nishant Sindhu, Jayant Yadav, Arshad Khan
- Spinners: Sai Kishore
- Fast bowlers: Kagiso Rabada, Luke Wood, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Sharma, Prithvi Raj Yarra.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: KKR came into the auction with the biggest remaining purse, and duly made its biggest buy, Cameron Green at an overseas-record INR 25.20 crore. Green is set to fill the void left by Andre Russell's move to the coaching staff. The squad has depth beyond the first XII, with Tim Seifert and Finn Allen brought in as 360-degree opener-keepers, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman (partially available for the season) and Akash Deep as death-bowling options, and Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi and Kartik Tyagi as more-than-useful squad players. With a power-packed line-up now in place, a familiar question remains: how to best fit in incumbent captain Ajinkya Rahane?
Possible best XII: 1 Tim Seifert/Finn Allen (wk), 2 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 3 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Rahul Tripathi/Anukul Roy, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Matheesha Pathirana/Mustafizur Rahman, 12 Varun Chakravarthy.
Full KKR squad
- Batters: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell
- Wicketkeepers: Finn Allen, Tejasvi Dahiya, Tim Seifert
- Allrounders: Anukul Roy, Cameron Green, Daksh Kamra, Ramandeep Singh, Rachin Ravindra, Sarthak Ranjan, Sunil Narine
- Spinners: Prashant Solanki, Varun Chakravarthy
- Fast bowlers: Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Kartik Tyagi, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora
Rajasthan Royals
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: Ahead of the auction, RR needed replacements for the spinners Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, and they bid aggressively for Ravi Bishnoi, whom they landed for INR 7.20 crore. They also picked up two other wristspinners: legspinner Yash Raj Punja and left-armer Vignesh Puthur. They also strengthened their overseas pace stocks with the acquisition of Adam Milne, which could ease some of their reliance on Jofra Archer. They already had a balanced squad heading into the auction; now they have options to turn to in different scenarios. They might feel short of an allrounder, though; they bid for three (Cameron Green, Auqib Nabi and Prashant Veer) but got their hands on none of them.
Possible best XII: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 3 Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 4 Riyan Parag (capt), 5 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Sam Curran/Donovan Ferreira, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Tushar Deshpande, 12 Sandeep Sharma.
Full RR squad
- Batters: Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aman Rao
- Wicketkeepers: Dhruv Jurel, Ravi Singh
- Allrounders: Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh
- Spinners: Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Raj Punja, Vignesh Puthur
- Fast bowlers: Jofra Archer, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Sushant Mishra, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen, Brijesh Sharma.
Punjab Kings
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: For much of the auction, PBKS barely lifted their paddle - and they had little need to. Fresh off a runners-up finish in IPL 2025, they already have a settled core. The only real gap was left by Josh Inglis, who was released since he would only be available for a limited part of IPL 2026 for personal reasons. That slot has gone to Cooper Connolly, the aggressive Australia batter who also bowls left-arm spin. Left-arm seamer Ben Dwarshuis brings vast T20 experience and could cover for the injury-prone Lockie Ferguson, who is unlikely to be available at the start of the season. Karnataka legspinner Praveen Dubey comes in as cover for Yuzvendra Chahal, while Vishal Nishad - the UP seamer who is yet to make his state debut - is a domestic scouting pick.
Possible best XII: 1 Priyansh Arya, 2 Prabhsimran Singh (wk), 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Nehal Wadhera, 5 Mitch Owen/Cooper Connolly, 6 Marcus Stoinis/Azmatullah Omzarzai, 7 Shashank Singh, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Harpreet Brar, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Lockie Ferguson/Ben Dwarshuis, 12 Yuzvendra Chahal.
Full PBKS squad
- Batters: Harnoor Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Shreyas Iyer
- Wicketkeepers: Prabhsimran Singh, Vishnu Vinod
- Allrounders: Azmatullah Omarzai, Ben Dwarshuis, Cooper Connolly, Harpreet Brar, Marco Jansen, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Owen, Musheer Khan, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge
- Spinners: Praveen Dubey, Yuzvendra Chahal
- Fast bowlers: Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Vishal Nishad, Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur
Delhi Capitals
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (8 overseas)
Hot take: Versatility is this DC squad's calling card. If Auqib Nabi or T Natarajan lose form, they can switch to an overseas pace attack without denting the batting, by pivoting to Karun Nair, Abishek Porel or Sameer Rizvi as conditions demand. The options are just as striking up top: only one of Pathum Nissanka or Ben Duckett is likely to start, and if they struggle, they can pivot to KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw while bolstering the bowling with Lungi Ngidi or Kyle Jamieson to join Mitchell Starc.
Possible best XII: 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Ben Duckett/Pathum Nissanka, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Tristan Stubbs, 5 Axar Patel (capt), 6 David Miller, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Vipraj Nigam, 9 Auqib Nabi, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mitchell Starc, 12 T Natarajan.
Full DC squad
- Batters: Prithvi Shaw, Karun Nair, Nitish Rana, Pathum Nissanka, Ashutosh Sharma, David Miller, Sameer Rizvi, Sahil Parakh
- Wicketkeepers: KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Ben Duckett
- Allrounders: Axar Patel, Vipraj Nigam, Kyle Jamieson, Auqib Nabi, Madhav Tiwari, T Vijay, Ajay Mandal
- Spinners: Kuldeep Yadav
- Fast bowlers: Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan, Lungi Ngidi, Dushmantha Chameera
Lucknow Super Giants
Number of players: 25 out of 25 (7 overseas)
Hot take: Having released David Miller, LSG couldn't get a proven finisher at the auction. They ended up spending INR 8.6 crore on Josh Inglis, who will be unavailable for much of the 2026 season, and INR 2.6 crore on the uncapped Mukul Choudhary, who may not start for them. Wanindu Hasaranga, who slots in for Ravi Bishnoi, adds batting depth but LSG's line-up still looks top heavy. They also snapped up Anrich Nortje at his base price of INR 2 crore, but he's injury-prone like the Indian quicks in the squad.
Possible best XII: 1 Mitchell Marsh, 2 Aiden Markram, 3 Nicholas Pooran, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Shahbaz Ahmed, 9 Avesh Khan/Mohsin Khan, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Mayank Yadav, 12 Digvesh Rathi.
Full squad
- Batters: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Aiden Markram, Akshat Raghuwanshi
- Wicketkeepers: Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran, Josh Inglis, Mukul Choudhary
- Allrounders: Arshin Kulkarni, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed
- Spinners: Digvesh Rathi, M Siddharth
- Fast bowlers: Akash Singh, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Anrich Nortje, Prince Yadav, Arjun Tendulkar, Mayank Yadav, Naman Tiwari