IPL 2026 All 10 Teams Likely Best Retained Squad Players List

Chennai Super Kings with 18 names in our all 10 teams best retained squad players list for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.  

It’s been only a few weeks since Royal Challengers Bengaluru created history in the Indian Premier League by winning their first-ever IPL trophy. However, the memories are still fresh in our minds. The moment RCB won the final, there were tears in Virat Kohli’s eyes, which signifies how emotional this moment was for him and the RCB fans. Overall, it was a complete team effort by the RCB team, with the bowling performance being a major highlight.

With IPL 2025 now done and dusted, the focus now shifts to the next most important event for all 10 teams, and that is the IPL 2026 Player retentions. Retentions are a crucial strategic part for any team. Every year, each team sees some star performers, and some underperformers as well. Hence, it is important to reward the performers by retaining their contract, and if there is something terribly wrong with any player, you have to make tough decisions too by releasing them.

Unlike IPL 2025, where teams were to retain a maximum of 6 players, it won’t be the case in IPL 2026. Since this is a Mini Auction, teams will not have any restriction to retain the number of players they would like to retain as long as they abide by the player combination. Every team, every year, looks to release the redundant or non-performing players, and find fresh minds in the Auction. This year won’t be any different, as even the IPL 2026 champion, RCB, will have laggards in the team. 

Indian Premier League 2026 Best Retained Squad Players List for All 10 Teams

Overall, it is important for all teams to release a few non-potential candidates, and find fresh emerging players in both the Indian and Overseas players categories. So, in this article, we try to break down the potential list of players that each team will retain and release for IPL 2026. The list is prepared after thorough research, and it can get refined as we approach the Mini Auction around November-December this year. So, kindly take this with a pinch of salt as we look at the likely best retained squad and players list for all 10 teams for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Delhi Capitals (DC)

Batters & Wks

1. Ashutosh Sharma
2. Jake Fraser-McGurk (o)
3. Sameer Rizvi
4. Abhishek Porel
5. Donovan Ferreira (o)
6. KL Rahul
7. Tristan Stubbs (o)

All-rounders

1. Axar Patel (c)
2. Vipraj Nigam

Bowlers

1. Kuldeep Yadav
2. Mitchell Starc (o)
3. Mukesh Kumar

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

Batters & Wks

1. Andre Siddharth
2. Ayush Mhatre
3. Dewald Brevis
4. Ruturaj Gaikwad (c)
5. Shaik Rasheed
6. MS Dhoni
7. Vansh Bedi
8. Urvil Patel

All-rounders

1. Rachin Ravindra (o)
2. Ravindra Jadeja
3. Sam Curran (o)
4. Shivam Dube

Bowlers

1. Anshul Kamboj
2. Khaleel Ahmed
3. Matheesha Pathirana
4. Nathan Ellis (o)
5. Noor Ahmad (o)
6. Ramkrishna Ghosh

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Gujarat Titans (GT)

Batters & Wks

1. Sai Sudharsan
2. Shahrukh Khan
3. Sherfane Rutherford (o)
4. Shubman Gill (c)
5. Anuj Rawat
6. Jos Buttler (o)

All-rounders

1. Arshad Khan
2. Mahipal Lomror
3. Manav Suthar
4. Nishant Sindhu
5. Rahul Tewatia
6. Washington Sundar

Bowlers

1. Gerald Coetzee (o)
2. Kulwant Kejroliya
3. Mohammed Siraj
4. Prasidh Krishna
5. R Sai Kishore
6. Rashid Khan (o) 

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Batters & Wks

1. Ajinkya Rahane (c)
2. Ramandeep Singh
3. Rinku Singh
4. Angkrish Raghuvanshi
5. Quinton de Kock (o)
6. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (o)

All-rounders

1. Andre Russell (o)
2. Anukul Roy
3. Moeen Ali (o)
4. Sunil Narine (o)

Bowlers

1. Anrich Nortje (o)
2. Harshit Rana
3. Mayank Markande
4. Umran Malik
5. Vaibhav Arora
6. Varun Chakravarthy

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)

Batters & Wks

1. Abdul Samad
2. Aiden Markram (o)
3. Ayush Badoni
4. David Miller (o)
5. Himmat Singh
6. Nicholas Pooran (o)
7. Rishabh Pant (c)

All-rounders

1. Arshin Kulkarni
2. Mitchell Marsh (o)
3. Shahbaz Ahmed

Bowlers

1. Akash Deep
2. Akash Singh
3. Avesh Khan
4. Digvesh Rathi
5. Prince Yadav
6. Ravi Bishnoi
7. Shardul Thakur
8. Will O’Rourke (o)

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Mumbai Indians (MI)

Batters & Wks

1. Bevon Jacobs (o)
2. Rohit Sharma
3. Suryakumar Yadav
4. Tilak Varma
5. Robin Minz
6. Ryan Rickelton (o)

All-rounders

1. Arjun Tendulkar
2. Corbin Bosch (o)
3. Hardik Pandya (c)
4. Mitchell Santner (o)
5. Naman Dhir
6. Raj Bawa
7. Will Jacks (o)

Bowlers

1. Allah Ghazanfar (o)
2. Ashwani Kumar
3. Deepak Chahar
4. Jasprit Bumrah
5. Karn Sharma
6. Trent Boult (o)
7. Vignesh Puthur

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Punjab Kings (PBKS)

Batters & Wks

1. Nehal Wadhera
2. Priyansh Arya
3. Pyla Avinash
4. Shashank Singh
5. Shreyas Iyer (c)
6. Josh Inglis (o)
7. Prabsimran Singh

All-rounders

1. Azmatullah Omarzai (o)
2. Harpreet Brar
3. Marco Jansen (o)
4. Marcus Stoinis (o)
5. Musheer Khan
6. Suryansh Shedge

Bowlers

1. Arshdeep Singh
2. Lockie Ferguson (o)
3. Kuldeep Sen
4. Pravin Dubey
5. Vyshak Vijaykumar
6. Yash Thakur
7. Yuzvendra Chahal

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Batters & Wks

1. Nitish Rana
2. Shimron Hetmyer (o)
3. Shubham Dubey
4. Vaibhav Suryavanshi
5. Yashasvi Jaiswal
6. Dhruv Jurel
7. Sanju Samson (c)

All-rounders

1. Riyan Parag
2. Wanindu Hasaranga (o)

Bowlers

1. Akash Madhwal
2. Jofra Archer (o)
3. Maheesh Theekshana (o)
4. Nandre Burger (o)
5. Sandeep Sharma
6. Tushar Deshpande
7. Yudhvir Charak

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)

Batters & Wks

1. Devdutt Padikkal
2. Mayank Agarwal
3. Rajat Patidar (c)
4. Swastik Chikara
5. Tim David (o)
6. Virat Kohli
7. Jitesh Sharma
8. Phil Salt (o)

All-rounders

1. Jacob Bethell (o)
2. Krunal Pandya
3. Manoj Bhandage
4. Romario Shephard (o)
5. Swapnil Singh

Bowlers

1. Bhuvneshwar Kumar
2. Josh Hazlewood (o)
3. Lungi Ngidi (o)
4. Nuwan Thushara (o)
5. Rasikh Dar
6. Suyash Sharma
7. Yash Dayal

IPL 2026 Best Retained Squad and Players List for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

Batters & Wks

1. Abhinav Manohar
2. Aniket Verma
3. Atharva Taide
4. Travis Head (o)
5. Heinrich Klaasen (o)
6. Ishan Kishan

All-rounders:

1. Abhishek Sharma
2. Harsh Dubey
3. Kamindu Mendis (o)
4. Nitish Reddy

Bowlers

1. Ehsan Malinga (o)
2. Harshal Patel,
3. Jaydev Unadkat,
4. Pat Cummins (o&c)
5. Simarjeet Singh
6. Zeeshan Ansari

So, that’s about the best retained players list for all 10 teams for the Indian Premier League 2026. It is important to note that we are still months away from the Mini Auction. Hence, the above-mentioned list is based on the current understanding of the players and teams’ strategy. The list may or may not get revised as we approach the nearness of the IPL 2026 Mini Auction. But consider almost 90% of the mentioned candidates as likely retentions.  

© IPLadda