Mumbai: Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are poised for intense bidding wars during December’s IPL mini-auction in Abu Dhabi, with both franchises entering the December 16 event holding the largest purses among the ten teams.
KKR entered the auction with a purse of Rs 64.30 crore after releasing non-performing assets in Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 23.75 crore) and Andre Russell (Rs 12 crore), while CSK, despite trading Sanju Samson, have freed up Rs 40 crore by letting go of a host of players.
The Knight Riders will be looking to rebuild their squad from scratch, while CSK are likely to revamp their bowling attack and may attempt to buy back Matheesha Pathirana or target Ben Stokes to restore balance, provided he is available after the Ashes.
They have released Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali and Anrich Nortje, while retaining a core group of players, which includes Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana and Angkrish Raghuvanshi.
KKR have 13 slots available, including six overseas slots.
Earlier, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and keeper-batter Sanju Samson have been traded to Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, respectively.
With the deadline for player retention ending on Sunday, Jadeja has switched base to Royals albeit at a much reduced fee, while Samson, who has led RR for four seasons, will be donning the yellow CSK jersey in IPL 2026.
An IPL media advisory said Saturday that Jadeja’s fee had been revised from Rs 18 crore to Rs 14 crore, while Samson will play for CSK at his existing fee of Rs 18 crore.
One of the most experienced players in the IPL, Samson has played 177 matches in the league with CSK being only his third franchise. He represented RR in all but two seasons — 2016 and 2017 — since making his IPL debut in 2013.
England all-rounder Sam Curran will move from CSK to RR at his existing league fee of Rs 2.4 crore following a successful trade.
CSK Managing Director Kasi Viswanathan reasoned behind the decision to trade Jadeja and said it was on mutual consent, albeit a tough one.
“Chennai Super Kings have traded Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran for Sanju Samson from Rajasthan Royals. The team management felt the need of a top order Indian batsman,” he said.
“And, this decision has been taken by the team management and, it is a very tough decision leaving out Jadeja, who has been responsible for the success of CSK over the years. It was probably one of the toughest decisions that CSK had to take.
“And it was after mutual agreement that we undertook this. When I spoke to Jadeja, he was also very clear, he also felt that he is at the fag end of his career in white ball. So, he also felt that he can have a break,” he added.
Pace-bowling stalwart Mohammed Shami will don the Lucknow Super Giants jersey after a trade from Sunrisers Hyderabad. He will move to the new franchise at his existing fee of Rs 10 crore.
Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar will also don LSG colours following a transfer from Mumbai Indians at his existing fee of Rs 30 lakh, while all-rounder Nitish Rana will represent Delhi Capitals following a trade from Rajasthan Royals at his existing fee of Rs 4.2 crore.
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru released six players, including Liam Livingstone and Lungi Ngidi, but, to the surprise of many, they chose to retain pacer Yash Dayal, who is facing sexual abuse allegations.
“We have been able to retain a really strong squad with, obviously, a great recent history of playing winning cricket. I feel for the players that we are releasing, because I am pretty sure they loved the experience as much as I did,” said RCB head coach Andy Flower.
“Having had such a good season, we are trying to find the balance between continuity and stability but also striving for improvement,” added RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat.
Delhi Capitals have released six players, the most notable among them being Faf du Plessis and Jake Fraser-McGurk. The remaining released players are Mohit Sharma, Sediqullah Atal, Manvanth Kumar and Darshan Nalkande.
The players retained by DC include Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc and Tristan Stubbs among others. Delhi Capitals have also roped in Nitish Rana in a trade for Donovan Ferreira, who moved to RR.
Gujarat Titans have released five players in Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya, Gerald Coetzee, Dasun Shanaka and Mahipal Lomror, while trading Sherfane Rutherford to Mumbai Indians.
New Zealand’s Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, R Ashwin, Deepak Hooda, Sam Curran and Matheesha Pathrirana are some of the big names to be released by CSK.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have released eight players, the most prominent among them are Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa and Rahul Chahar.
Punjab Kings have released five players — Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen and Praveen Dubey.
Mumbai Indians have released nine — Reece Topley, Karn Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahmanand Vignesh Puthur — being the notable players.
The three big names Lucknow Super Giants have released are Akashdeep, Ravi Bishnoi and David Miller.
All the released players will now go into the mini-auction.
The remaining purse: Chennai Super Kings (Rs 43.40 crore), Mumbai Indians (Rs 2.75 crore), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Rs 16.40 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (Rs 64.30 crore), Sunrisers Hyderabad (Rs 25.50 crore), Gujarat Titans (Rs 12.90 crore), Rajasthan Royals (Rs 16.05 crore), Delhi Capitals (Rs 21.80 crore), Lucknow Super Giants (Rs 22.95 crore), Punjab Kings (Rs 11.50 crore).
