IPL 2026

The Indian Premier League (IPL) will return for its 19th season with 10 teams competing in a total of 84 matches for the ultimate glory. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are the defending champions, having won the title for the first time, defeating Punjab Kings in the final last year.

The Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, where 11 people died in a stampede last year during RCB's victory celebrations, was cleared to host IPL 2026 matches this time and will host the opening encounter and final.

A lot has happened in the lead up to IPL 2026. Following the mini-auction last year in December in Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman was removed from IPL unceremoniously by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after a BCCI directive. Mustafizur's removal left a huge impact on the just-concluded T20 World Cup 2026, which India won a day before.

As a result, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to play T20 World Cup on Indian soil. Despite several meetings between the ICC and the BCB, the apex body replaced Bangladesh by Scotland in the global extravaganza. KKR are yet to make any replacement for Mustafizur.

Ahead of the IPL 2026, Sanju Samson is one of the biggest trades that took place just before the IPL 2026 mini auction. Samson was roped in by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) from Rajasthan Royals, potentially locking him as a long-time successor for ageing MS Dhoni. As a part of the trade, CSK gave away Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran to the inaugural champions.

Veteran India pacer Mohammed Shami was another notable trade from Sunrisers Hyderabad to Lucknow Super Giants. Mumbai Indians have also brought in Shardul Thakur and Sherfane Rutherford from LSG and Gujarat Giants, respectively as part of trade deals.

Complete list of trade deals in IPL 2026

Ravindra Jadeja - Chennai Super Kings to Rajasthan Royals ( ₹14 crore)
Sam Curran - Chennai Super Kings to Rajasthan Royals ( ₹2.4 crore)
Sanju Samson - Rajasthan Royals to Chennai Super Kings ( ₹18 crore)
Mohammed Shami - Sunrisers Hyderabad to Lucknow Super Giants ( ₹10 crore)
Mayank Markande - Kolkata Knight Riders to Mumbai Indians ( ₹30 lakh)
Arjun Tendulkar - Mumbai Indians to Lucknow Super Giants ( ₹30 lakh)
Nitish Rana - Rajasthan Royals to Delhi Capitals ( ₹4.2 crore)
Donovan Ferreira - Delhi Capitals to Rajasthan Royals ( ₹1 crore)
Shardul Thakur - Lucknow Super Giants to Mumbai Indians ( ₹2 crore)
Sherfane Rutherford - Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians ( ₹2.6 crore)

Complete squads of IPL 2026

Lucknow Super Giants: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (c), Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh, Mohammed Shami, Arjun Tendulkar, Wanindu Hasaranga, Anrich Nortje, Mukul Choudhary, Naman Tiwari, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Josh Inglis.

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 Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R. Smaran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari, Shivang Kumar, Salil Arora, Sakib Hussain, Onkar Tarmale, Amit Kumar, Praful Hinge, Krains Fuletra, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Jack Edwards.

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickleton, Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Raghu Sharma, Mitchell Santner, Corbin Bosch, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Allah Ghafanzar, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks, Sherfane Rutherford, Mayank Markande, Shardul Thakur, Quinton de Kock, Danish Malewar, Mohammad Izhar, Atharva Ankolekar, Mayank Rawat.

Punjab Kings: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyala Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Pravin Dubey, Vishal Nishad.

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, M.S. Dhoni, Sanju Samson, Dewald Brevis, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary, Nathan Ellis, Akeal Hosein, Prashant Veer, Kartik Sharma, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Zak Foulkes.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Duffy, Satvik Deswal, Mangesh Yadav, Jordan Cox, Vicky Ostwal, Vihaan Malhotra, Kanishk Chouhan.

Rajasthan Royals: Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Donovan Ferreira, Sandeep Sharma, Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Yash Raj Punja, Vignesh Puthur, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao, Brijesh Sharma, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen.

Delhi Capitals: Nitish Rana, Abishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Sameer Rizvi, T Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, David Miller, Ben Duckett, Auqib Nabi, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parakh, Prithvi Shaw, Kyle Jamieson.

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Ashok Sharma, Jason Holder, Tom Banton, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Luke Wood.