The Board of Control for Cricket in India has confirmed that the IPL 2026 mini-auction will take place on December 16 2025 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi marking the tournament’s third straight auction hosted outside India. The announcement came shortly after all ten franchises finalized their retained player lists for the upcoming season. Since this will be a mini-auction the event is set to run for a single day.
The overseas location continues a recent trend following the 2024 auction in Dubai and the 2025 mega event in Jeddah where several high-profile players including Rishabh Pant Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer drew record bids. For the 2026 auction the ten IPL teams collectively hold a purse of INR 237.55 crore to fill 77 available slots with each franchise permitted to build a squad of up to 25 players.
A total of 173 players including 49 overseas cricketers were retained as the deadline closed on November 15. Punjab Kings kept the largest squad with 21 retained players while Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans held onto 20 each. Kolkata Knight Riders enter the auction with the biggest purse of INR 64.30 crore after parting ways with several names including Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer leaving the franchise with 13 vacancies and six overseas spots. Chennai Super Kings will operate with the second-largest purse of INR 43.4 crore to fill nine remaining slots.
The build-up to the auction also featured a major trade involving Sanju Samson Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran. Samson moved to Chennai Super Kings for INR 18 crore while Jadeja and Curran joined Rajasthan Royals in a high-value exchange. Additional trades saw Mohammed Shami and Arjun Tendulkar move to Lucknow Super Giants and Mayank Markande shift to Mumbai Indians. Nitish Rana also completed a move to Delhi Capitals ahead of the new season.