The biggest headline came from the Ravindra Jadeja and Sanju Samson trade, which saw the long-time CSK star move to Rajasthan Royals, while the RR captain shifted to Chennai Super Kings.

KKR Release Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer

Kolkata Knight Riders made another huge move by releasing Andre Russell, one of their longest-serving match-winners. They also let go of Venkatesh Iyer, who struggled last season after his ₹23.75 crore signing at the Jeddah mega auction.

CSK and MI Release 12 Players Each

Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians cleared significant space in their squad by releasing 12 players each, including notable names like Devon Conway, Matheesha Pathirana, and Arjun Tendulkar (traded out).

TEAM-WISE FULL IPL 2026 RETENTION LIST

Chennai Super Kings (Purse: ₹43.4 crore)

Released:

Rachin Ravindra, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Matheesha Pathirana, Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddharth, Devon Conway, Sam Curran (traded out), Ravindra Jadeja (traded out)

Retained:

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmed, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjanpreet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary

Traded In:

Sanju Samson (from RR)

Kolkata Knight Riders (Purse: ₹64.3 crore | Slots: 13)

Released:

Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Mayank Markande (traded out), Spencer Johnson, Chetan Sakariya, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Luvnit Sisodia

Retained:

Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Angrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik

Traded In:

None

Mumbai Indians (Purse: ₹2.75 crore | Slots: 5)

Released:

Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Srijith, Karn Sharma, Arjun Tendulkar (traded out), Bevon Jacobs, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Lizard Williams, Vignesh Puthir, Charith Asalanka, Jonny Bairstow

Retained:

Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dhir, Michell Santner, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, Allah Ghazanfar

Traded In:

Sherfane Rutherford, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande

Rajasthan Royals (Purse: ₹16.05 crore | Slots: 9)

Released:

Sanju Samson (traded out), Nitish Rana (traded out), Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Kunal Singh Rathore, Fazhalhaq Farooqi, Akash Madhwal, Ashok Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya

Retained:

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Vaibhav Suryavnashi, Shubham Pandey, Lhuan Dre-Pretorius, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Yudhvir Singh, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger

Traded In:

Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Donovan Ferreira

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Purse: ₹16.4 crore | Slots: 8)

Released:

Liam Livingstone, Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Tim Seifert, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi, Mohit Rathee, Blessing Muzarabani

Retained:

Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Swapnil Singh, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh

Traded In:

None

Sunrisers Hyderabad (Purse: ₹25 crore | Slots: 10)

Released:

Mohammed Shami (traded out), Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder, Simarjeet Singh, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa

Retained:

Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari, Ravichandran Smaran

Traded In:

None

Delhi Capitals (Purse: ₹21.8 crore | Slots: 8)

Released:

Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira (traded out)

Retained:

Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera

Traded In:

None

Gujarat Titans (Purse: ₹12.9 crore | Slots: 5)

Released:

Dasun Shanaka, Karim Janat, Sherfane Rutherford (traded out), Mahipal Lomror, Gerald Coetzee, Kulwant Khejroliya

Retained:

Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, M Shahrukh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Jos Buttler, Anuj Rawat, Rahul Tewatia, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Jayant Yadav, Nishant Sindhu, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Sai Kishore, Gurnoor Brar, Arshad Khan, Ishant Sharma, Manav Suthar

Lucknow Super Giants

Released:

Aryan Juyal, David Miller, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shardul Thakur (traded out), Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph