Why IPL Auction 2026 Could Be Explosive: Date, Players in Demand & Team Strategies

With the much-awaited IPL auction 2026 just around the corner, here's a detailed breakdown of everything that matters - the IPL auction 2026 dates, the rules, the IPL auction 2026 players' list, the team purse and other details.

Key highlights of IPL Auction 2026:

The cricketing world is eagerly waiting for yet another edition of the IPL auction. Unlike the last auction which was a mega one, the upcoming IPL auction 2026 will be a mini auction. However, the reduced scale has not dented the anticipation.

The fans across the globe are once again waiting for the IPL mini auction with the same energy and are gearing up to witness another round of intense bidding wars for some of the most sought-after cricketers in the world.

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Unlike the mega auction, the mini auction is used by the teams not as a rebuild but a correction window. Teams usually use the mini auction to fix what went wrong in the previous season or to further bolster their already settled squads. Time and again, the mini auction has sprung numerous surprises and the upcoming auction also promises to be an exciting one as players from around the world will be up for grabs.

IPL Auction 2026 date, time and venue:

The highly-awaited auction is scheduled to take place on 16 December 2025. The venue for the auction is Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

This will be the third year in a row that the IPL auction is being held outside India. In 2024, the auction was held in Dubai before the event took place in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah in 2025.

The auction this year will be a one-day affair and is scheduled to start at 2:30 PM IST.

IPL Auction 2026 Schedule

IPL Auction 2026 Rules Explained:

Maximum Squad Size Rules

A team can have a maximum of 25 players in their squad. At the same time, a team cannot have less than 18 players on its roster.

Overseas Players Limit

While an IPL team is allowed to have as many as 25 players on its roster, it can only have a maximum of 8 overseas players.

Right To Match (RTM) Rule – Is It Available in IPL auction 2026?

The Right To Match (RTM) card has been traditionally used in mega auctions and it is unlikely to be used in the upcoming mini auction.

Unsold Players Rule and accelerated rounds:

If a player goes unsold in the auction, he can still find a buyer in the accelerated rounds that happens towards the end of the event. The accelerated phase takes place based on the number of slots remaining and the purse left.

Before the accelerated phase, all the 10 teams will submit a list of the remaining players. After the names are submitted, those players will be introduced into the auction for the accelerated round for bidding. Players who have not been shortlisted will not go under the hammer.

Injury Replacement Rules Post-Auction:

• According to the present rules, the IPL teams can sign a replacement player until their 12th league match. Earlier, the teams were only allowed to do it until their 7th league match.
• A team can replace a player only if he suffers a season-ending injury or illness.
• The replacement player must already be listed in the Registered Available Player Pool (RAPP) for that season.

IPL Auction 2026 Purse – Team-wise Budget

Team-Wise Remaining Purse Before Auction

Each IPL franchise started with an INR 125 crore purse, but after trades and releases, their remaining budgets now vary. Three-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders have the largest remaining purse, INR 64.3 crore. On the other hand, five-time champions Mumbai Indians have the smallest purse, INR 2.75 crore.

Here is a list showing the remaining purse of each IPL team ahead of the auction:

IPL Auction 2026 Players List & Shortlisted Cricketers:

Total Players Registered & Shortlisted for IPL Auction 2026

Before the auction, the 10 IPL franchises retained a total of 173 players, including 49 overseas players. 77 players (31 overseas players) will be up for grabs in the auction.

For the upcoming auction, 1355 players had registered their names. According to Cricbuzz, the list contained 1,062 Indians and 293 overseas players. However, only 350 players will be going under the hammer in the auction, stated IPL as it announced the final list. Out of those 350 players, 240 are Indian and 110 from overseas.

Country-wise Player Distribution

Here is the list showing all the 350 players shortlisted for IPL auction 2026:

SET 1 — BA1 (Capped Batters)

• Devon Conway
• Jake Fraser-McGurk
• Cameron Green
• Sarfaraz Khan
• David Miller
• Prithvi Shaw

SET 2 — AL1 (Capped allrounders)

• Gus Atkinson
• Wanindu Hasaranga
• Deepak Hooda
• Venkatesh Iyer
• Liam Livingstone
• Wiaan Mulder
• Rachin Ravindra

SET 3 — WK1 (Capped Wicketkeepers)

• Finn Allen
• Jonny Bairstow
• KS Bharat
• Quinton de Kock
• Ben Duckett
• Rahmanullah Gurbaz
• Jamie Smith

SET 4 — FA1 (Capped Fast Bowlers)

• Gerald Coetzee
• Akash Deep
• Jacob Duffy
• Fazalhaq Farooqi
• Matt Henry
• Spencer Johnson
• Shivam Mavi
• Anrich Nortje
• Matheesha Pathirana

SET 5 — SP1 (Capped Spinners)

• Ravi Bishnoi
• Rahul Chahar
• Akeal Hosein
• Mujeeb Rahman
• Maheesh Theekshana

SET 6 — UBA1 (Uncapped Batters)

• Aarya Desai
• Yash Dhull
• Abhinav Manohar
• Anmolpreet Singh
• Atharva Taide
• Abhinav Tejrana

SET 7 — UAL1 (Uncapped allrounders)

• Auqib Dar
• Rajvardhan Hangargekar
• Tanush Kotian
• Shivang Kumar
• Mahipal Lomror
• Kamlesh Nagarkoti
• Vijay Shankar
• Sanvir Singh
• Edhen Tom
• Prashant Veer

SET 8 — UWK1 (Uncapped Wicketkeepers)

• Ruchit Ahir
• Vansh Bedi
• Mukul Choudhary
• Tushar Raheja
• Kartik Sharma
• Tejasvi Singh

SET 9 — UFA1 (Uncapped Fast Bowlers)

• Raj Limbani
• Akash Madhwal
• Sushant Mishra
• Ashok Sharma
• Simarjeet Singh
• Naman Tiwari
• Kartik Tyagi

SET 10 — USP1 (Uncapped Spin Bowlers)

• Yash Raj Punja
• Vignesh Puthur
• Karn Sharma
• Shivam Shukla
• Kumar Kartikeya
• Prashant Solanki
• Wahidullah Zadran

SET 11 — BA2 (Capped Batters)

• Mayank Agarwal
• Sediqullah Atal
• Ackeem Auguste
• Reeza Hendricks
• Pathum Nissanka
• Tim Robinson
• Steve Smith
• Rahul Tripathi

SET 12 — AL2 (Capped allrounders)

• Sean Abbott
• Michael Bracewell
• Ben Dwarshuis
• Zak Foulkes
• Jason Holder
• Daryl Mitchell
• Daniel Sams
• Dasun Shanaka
• Matthew Short

SET 13 — WK2 (Capped Wicketkeepers)

• Tom Banton
• Jordan Cox
• Shai Hope
• Josh Inglis
• Ben McDermott
• Kusal Mendis
• Kusal Perera
• Tim Seifert

SET 14 — FA2 (Capped Fast Bowlers)

• Kyle Jamieson
• Saqib Mahmood
• Adam Milne
• Lungi Ngidi
• William O’Rourke
• Mustafizur Rahman
• Chetan Sakariya
• Kuldeep Sen
• Umesh Yadav

SET 15 — SP2 (Capped Spinners)

• Qais Ahmad
• Rishad Hossain
• Waqar Salamkheil
• Viyaskanth Vijayakanth
• SET 16 — UBA2
• Ankit Kumar
• Rohan Kunnummal
• Danish Malewar
• Pukhraj Mann
• Salman Nizar
• Aman Rao Perala
• Akshat Raghuwanshi
• Manan Vohra

SET 17 — UAL2

• Yuvraj Chaudhary
• Satvik Deswal
• Aman Khan
• Darshan Nalkande
• Vicky Ostwal
• Sairaj Patil
• Suyash Prabhudessai
• Mayank Rawat
• Harsh Tyagi
• Mangesh Yadav

SET 18 — UWK2

• Salil Arora
• Ricky Bhui
• Rahul Buddhi
• Saurav Chauhan
• Yashvardhan Dalal
• Abhishek Pathak
• Kunal Rathore
• Ravi Singh

SET 19 — UFA2

• KM Asif
• Sakib Hussain
• Mohammad Izhar
• Vidwath Kaverappa
• Vijay Kumar
• Vidyadhar Patil
• PV Satyanarayana Raju
• Onkar Tarmale
• Prithviraj Yarra

SET 20 — USP2

• Shubham Agrawal
• Murugan Ashwin
• Tejas Baroka
• KC Cariappa
• Kartik Chadha
• Pravin Dubey
• Mohit Rathee
• Himanshu Sharma
• Bailapudi Yeswanth

SET 21 — AL3

• Rehan Ahmed
• Cooper Connolly
• Tom Curran
• Bevon-John Jacobs
• Daniel Lawrence
• George Linde
• Gulbadin Naib
• William Sutherland
• Beau Webster

SET 22 — FA3

• Taskin Ahmed
• Richard Gleeson
• Alzarri Joseph
• Shamar Joseph
• Riley Meredith
• Jhye Richardson
• Navdeep Saini
• Naveen-ul-Haq
• Luke Wood

SET 23 — UBA3

• Kunal Chandela
• Ayush Doseja
• Qamran Iqbal
• Dheeraj Kumar
• Bhanu Pania
• Sahil Parakh
• Arsh Kabir Ranga
• Adarsh Singh

SET 24 — UAL3

• Manoj Bhandage
• Mayank Dagar
• Raghav Goyal
• Manvanth Kumar
• Abid Mushtaq
• Jalaj Saxena
• Atit Sheth
• Hritik Shokeen
• Jagadeesha Suchith
• Tanay Thyagarajann

SET 25 — UWK3

• Joe Clarke
• Connor Esterhuizen
• Ajitesh Guruswamy
• Siddharth Joon
• Tom Moores
• Bipin Saurabh
• Vishnu Solanki
• Hardik Tamore

SET 26 — UFA3

• Sayan Ghosh
• Money Grewal
• Arpit Guleria
• Sunil Kumar
• Tristan Luus
• Divesh Sharma
• Abhilash Shetty
• Irfan Umair
• Kuldip Yadav

SET 27 — USP3

• Manan Bhardwaj
• Shreyas Chavan
• Parikshit Dhanak
• Chintal Gandhi
• Dharmendrasinh Jadeja
• Amit Kumar
• Vishal Nishad
• Saumy Pandey
• Jhathavedh Subramanyan

SET 28 — AL4

• Muhammad Abbas
• Charith Asalanka
• Roston Chase
• Liam Dawson
• George Garton
• Kyle Mayers
• Dwaine Pretorius
• Nathan Smith
• Dunith Wellalage

SET 29 — FA4

• Jason Behrendorff
• Tanzim Hasan Sakib
• Matthew Potts
• Nahid Rana
• Olly Stone
• Josh Tongue
• Sandeep Warrier

SET 30 — UBA4

• Sachin Dhas
• Miles Hammond
• Ahammed Imran
• Vishvarajsinh Jadeja
• Ayaz Khan
• Daniel Lategan
• Siddhant Rana
• Aaron Varghese

SET 31 — UAL4

• Atharva Ankolekar
• Abdul Bazith
• Karan Lal
• Shams Mulani
• Ripal Patel
• Prince Rai
• Vivrant Sharma
• Utkarsh Singh
• Ayush Vartak
• Sanjay Yadav

SET 32 — UFA4

• Sayed Irfan Aftab
• Esakkimuthu Ayyakutti
• Praful Hinge
• Pankaj Jaswal
• Kulwant Khejroliya
• Ravi Kumar
• Rajan Kumar
• Safvan Patel
• Ishan Porel

SET 33 — USP4

• Purav Agarwal
• Jikku Bright
• Yash Dicholkar
• Arab Gul
• Rakibul Hasan
• Traveen Mathew
• Naman Pushpak
• Izaz Sawariya
• Roshan Wagshare

SET 34 — FA5

• Wesley Agar
• Binura Fernando
• Shoriful Islam
• Joshua Little
• Obed McCoy
• Billy Stanlake

SET 35 — UAL5

• RS Ambrish
• Nikhil Chaudhary
• Krains Fuletra
• Macneil Noronha
• R Rajkumar
• Ninad Rathva
• Sunny Sandhu
• Shivalik Sharma
• Siddharth Yadav
• R Sonu Yadav

SET 36 — UFA5

• Waseem Khanday
• Atif Mushtaq
• Atal Rai
• C. Rakshann Readdi
• Manish Reddy
• Nishanth Saranu
• Deependra Singh
• Rajat Verma
• Rohit Yadav

SET 37 — UAL6

• Emanjot Chahal
• Shubhang Hegde
• Bal Krishna
• Vihaan Malhotra
• Khilan Patel
• Delano Potgieter
• Hardik Raj
• Sarthak Ranjan
• Parth Rekhade
• Tiaan van Vuuren

SET 38 — UFA6

• Shreevatsha Acharya
• Sadek Hussain
• Shubham Kapse
• Aaqib Khan
• Sabir Khan
• Bayanda Majola
• Srihari Nair
• Brijesh Sharma
• Aman Shekhawat

SET 39 — UAL7

• Himanshu Bisht
• Shreyan Chakraborty
• Kanishk Chouhan
• Mayank Gusain
• Akash Pugazhanthi
• Abhimanyusingh Rajput
• Shubham Rana
• Arpit Rana
• Maramreddy Reddy
• Sagar Solanki

SET 40 — UAL8

• Aryaman Singh Dhaliwal
• Daksh Kamra
• Vishal Mandwal
• Arfaz Mohammad
• Hemang Patel
• Mridul Surroch
• Anuj Thakral
• Parth Vats
• Lalit Yadav
• Nitin Sai Yadav

SET 41 — UAL9

• Krish Bhagat
• Prerit Dutta
• Sammar Gajjar
• Nasir Lone
• Ishan Mulchandani
• Akhil Scaria
• Muhammed Sharafuddeen
• Ajay Singh
• Ritik Tada
• Luckyrajsinh Vaghela

SET 42 — UAL10

• Mohamed Ali
• Madhav Bajaj
• Akshu Bajwa
• Varun Raj Singh Bisht
• Rishabh Chauhan
• Jack Edwards
• Dian Forrester
• Dhurmil Matkar
• Shiva Singh
• Parikshit Valsangkar

IPL Auction 2026 – Team-wise Strategy

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Auction Strategy

• CSK will be eyeing a world-class allrounder after releasing the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran.
• With more than INR 43 crore available, the five-time IPL champions are expected to go big for the likes of Liam Livingstone or Cameron Green.
• CSK will also be looking to bolster their pace attack after releasing Matheesha Pathirana.

Mumbai Indians (MI) Auction Strategy

• Mumbai Indians seem to have all the bases covered in their squad.
• For the upcoming auction, they only have INR 2.75 crore in their purse and they are likely to have a quiet outing in the auction.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Strategy

• The defending champions will be keen to further bolster their squad as they look to retain their title.
• With Josh Hazlewood injury prone and Yash Dayal yet to play a competitive match since IPL 2025, RCB will be eyeing a quality pacer.
• They will also look to sign a pinch hitter in the middle-order after releasing Liam Livingstone.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Strategy

• KKR are set to have a very busy day in the auction and they have the purse to bolster their squad.
• They will be eyeing a quality wicketkeeper-batter after releasing Quinton de Kock and Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
• They will also be seeking a hard-hitting allrounder after releasing the likes of Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) Strategy

• Rajasthan Royals will look to bolster their spin attack after releasing the likes of Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga and Kartikeya.

Delhi Capitals (DC) Strategy

• Delhi Capitals will be seeking reinforcement in their top-order after releasing the likes of Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis and Shai Hope.
• With only three overseas players in their squad, the Capitals will also be eyeing more overseas players.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Strategy

• SRH will be needing an Indian pacer after releasing Mohammed Shami.
• They will also be keen on signing a spinner after parting ways with the likes of Adam Zampa and Rahul Chahar.

Punjab Kings (PBKS) Strategy

• PBKS have retained their core squad and their team looks quite settled.
• With only 11.5 crore left in their purse, they are likely to have a quiet outing in this year's auction.

Gujarat Titans (GT) Strategy

• Gujarat Titans have a settled top-order and they will be keen on signing a quality finisher especially after releasing Sherfane Rutherford.
• They will also be looking to bag a quality allrounder.

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Strategy

• LSG have released the likes of David Miller and Ravi Bishnoi and will be needing quality replacement for those players.

IPL Auction 2026 Live Streaming & Telecast Details:

The IPL 2026 auction will be broadcast live on Star Sports Network in India and the live streaming will be available on JioStar.

IPL Auction 2026 Records & Stats:

Year-wise costliest players in IPL:

Over the years, allrounders and fast bowlers have dominated the auction. Here’s a look at the most expensive buys from 2008 to 2025.

IPL Auction 2026 - Prediction: Who Can Be The Costliest Buy

Which player can become the costliest buy in the upcoming IPL auction 2026?

Allrounders have always been in high demand in the IPL auction. In the upcoming auction, a number of quality allrounders will be up for grabs. One of the most sought-after names is Australia's Cameron Green. While he has registered himself as a batsman, he is more than a handy pacer. Speculations are rife that Green is likely to be costliest player in this year's auction.

This page will be updated in real time during IPL Auction 2026 with sold players list, unsold players, and final squad details for all 10 teams.