To create the strongest team possible, each Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise has retained its key players while releasing those they believe are no longer needed or who could be reacquired in the upcoming auction.
The Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have retained most of their roster, whereas teams like Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have released many players to form a new squad for IPL 2026. Below is the complete retentions list for IPL 2026, created by SportzPoint .
Gujarat Titans retained players
Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Jos Buttler, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Sai Sudharsan, Prasidh Krishna, Sai Kishore, Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Brar, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Nishant Sindhu, Manav Suthar.
SRH retained players
Pat Cummins, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head, Harshal Patel, Ishan Kishan, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Brydon Carse, Kamindu Mendis, Aniket Verma, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Smaran Ravichandaran.
LSG retained players
Nicholas Pooran, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Rishabh Pant, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, Himmat Singh, M. Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Singh, Prince Yadav, Arshin Kulkarni, Matthew Breetzke, Arjun Tendulkar (traded-in), Mohammed Shami (traded-in).
Delhi Capitals retained players
Mitchell Starc, Nitish Rana (traded-in), KL Rahul, T. Natarajan, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Vipraj Nigam, Dushmantha Chameera, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained players
Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Tim David, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Abhinandan Singh, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Nuwan Thushara, Yash Dayal.
Rajasthan Royals retained players
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-dre Pretorious, Nandre Burger, Donovan Ferreira (traded-in), Sam Curran (traded-in), Ravindra Jadeja (traded-in).
Punjab Kings retained players
Shreyas Iyer, Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Shashank Singh, Pyla Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Musheer Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Amatullah Omarzai, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Xavier Barlett, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar.
Mumbai Indians retained players
Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma, Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Deepak Chahar, Allah Ghazanfar, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Raj Angad Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Raghu Sharma, Shardul Thakur (traded-in), Sherfane Rutherford (traded-in), Mayank Markande (traded-in).
Kolkata Knight Riders retained players
Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Umran Malik, Anukul Roy.
Chennai Super Kings retained players
Sanju Samson (traded-in), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleed Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary.