The IPL 2026 auction in Abu Dhabi was a historic affair, headlined by the record-breaking acquisition of Kolkata Knight Riders. cameron greenThe Australian all-rounder became the most expensive overseas player in the history of the tournament when KKR bought him for a whopping ₹25,20 crore, surpassing Mitchell Starc’s previous benchmark,
Entering the auction with the biggest purse of ₹64.30 crore, the three-time champions were relentless as they also bought Sri Lankan fast bowler Mathisha Pathirana for ₹18 crore. Despite starting with the fewest retained players, KKR’s aggressive strategy allowed them to become the first franchise to finalize their entire 25-man squad for the upcoming season.
Beyond the international stars, untapped Indian talent grabbed the headlines at the Etihad Arena. Chennai Super Kings set a new example by signing Prashant Veer and Karthik Sharma for ₹14.2 crore each, making them the joint most expensive uncapped players in history, breaking Avesh Khan’s previous record.
Across the board, the ten franchises invested a combined ₹237.55 crore to fill 77 available slots from a pool of 369 cricketers. While big spenders were all the rage, Mumbai Indians made a smart move with a limited budget and acquired veteran Quinton de Kock for just ₹1 crore.
With the auction over and the lineups decided, the stage is set for another exciting edition of the competition.
Complete squads of all IPL teams for the 2026 season
Chennai Super Kings
MS Dhoni, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapaneet Singh, Jamie Overton*, Mukesh Chaudhary, Nathan Ellis*, Noor Ahmed*, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dubey, Shreyas Gopal, Syed Khalil Ahmed, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis*, Urvil Patel, Karthik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Matt Henry*, Akeal Hosein*, Matthew Short*, Jack Foulkes*, Sarfaraz Khan, Aman Khan
Delhi Capitals
Abhishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Dushmantha Chameera*, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwary, Mitchell Starc*, Mukesh Kumar, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, T. Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs*, Vipraj Nigam, Aukeeb Dar, Pathum Nissanka*, Kyle Jamieson*, Lungi Ngidi*, Ben Duckett*, David Miller*, Prithvi Shaw, Sahil Parakh
Gujarat Titans
Anuj Rawat, Glenn Phillips*, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Jos Buttler*, Kagiso Rabada*, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed. Arshad Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Prasidh Krishna, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan*, Sai Sudarshan, Shahrukh Khan, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder*, Tom Banton*, Ashok Sharma, Luke Wood*, Prithviraj Yara
Kolkata Knight Riders
Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell*, Sunil Narine*, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakraborty, Cameron Green*, Mathisha Pathirana*, Mustafizur Rahman*, Tejasvi Singh, Rachin Ravindra*, Finn Allen*, Tim Seifert*, Akash Deep, Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Kartik Tyagi
Lucknow Super Giants
Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram*, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshin Kulkarni, Avesh Khan, Ayush Badoni, Digvesh Rathi, Himmat Singh, Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Britzke*, Mayank Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mitchell Marsh*, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Pooran*, Prince Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Inglis*, Mukul Chaudhary, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Anrich Nortje*, Wanindu Hasaranga*, Naman Tiwari
Mumbai Indians
Allah Ghazanfar*, Ashwini Kumar, Corbin Bosch*, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande