IPL 2026: All 10 Teams Exclusive Best Retained Indian Players List

Discover the best list of retained Indian players by all 10 IPL teams ahead of the Indian Premier League 2026 season: exclusive insights and team-wise breakdowns.  

Indian players are the most important members of the Indian Premier League, and almost 70% of the players representing the IPL are Indians. Since it is the Indian Premier League, a maximum of 80 Overseas players are allowed to participate in the IPL of a total of 250 players. This shows that, be it the inexperienced uncapped players, or experienced Indian players, both are the backbone of the biggest T20 league in the world.

The IPL has seen many quality Indian players making a mark in the tournament. The tournament is a stepping stone for any budding Indian cricketer to play for the national side. Every year, we see so many quality Indian players making a mark in the tournament, and then going on to play for the Indian team. Having seen how many Indian players excelled with flying colours in IPL 2025, the next stop for these players will be to continue the momentum in IPL 2026.

But which Indian players will make a mark in IPL 2026? Well, the tournament is still 7-8 months away. But before that, all 10 Teams and their players will gear up for IPL 2026 Player retention. Unlike Mega Auction, each team will be free to retain almost their entire squad. So, in this article, we break down the best retained Indian Players list for all 10 Teams for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. 

IPL 2026 All 10 Teams Exclusive Best Retained Indian Players List

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

1. Andre Siddharth
2. Ayush Mhatre
3. Ruturaj Gaikwad (c)
4. Shaik Rasheed
5. MS Dhoni
6. Vansh Bedi
7. Urvil Patel
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9. Shivam Dube
10. Anshul Kamboj
11. Khaleel Ahmed
12. Ramkrishna Ghosh

If we talk about the CSK team, the team should retain a total of 12 Indian players for IPL 2026. The biggest question for them was whether MS Dhoni would play next year. The answer is yes, as MS Dhoni will once again be back in Yellow next year. Aside from MS Dhoni, we should see CSK retaining all Star Indian players like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Ayush Mhatre, and Khaleel Ahmed. However, the team may release some big names like Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, and Ravichandran Ashwin.

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

1. Ashutosh Sharma
2. Sameer Rizvi
3. Abhishek Porel
4. KL Rahul
5. Axar Patel (c)
6. Vipraj Nigam
7. Kuldeep Yadav
8. Mukesh Kumar

The Delhi Capitals team should retain a total of 8 Indian players only. The Delhi team doesn’t have a lot of quality Indian players, and among the known names, we should see them retaining the likes of KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhishek Porel, Ashutosh Sharma, and Vipraj Nigam. However, the team may release the likes of T Natarajan, Mohit Sharma, and Karun Nair. The team will need to add a few more quality Indian players for IPL 2026.

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

1. Sai Sudharsan
2. Shahrukh Khan
3. Shubman Gill (c)
4. Anuj Rawat
5. Arshad Khan
6. Mahipal Lomror
7. Manav Suthar
8. Nishant Sindhu
9. Rahul Tewatia
10. Washington Sundar
11. Kulwant Kejroliya
12. Mohammed Siraj
13. Prasidh Krishna
14. R Sai Kishore

Talking about the Gujarat Titans team, they don’t have a dearth of Indian talent, and should retain a total of 14 Indian players. Alongside Captain Shubman Gill, we should see Gujarat Titans retaining the likes of Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, and R Sai Kishore among quality Indian players. The team may release only a handful of Indian players, and Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, etc., may be the ones to get sacked.

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

1. Ajinkya Rahane
2. Ramandeep Singh
3. Rinku Singh
4. Angkrish Raghuvanshi
5. Anukul Roy
6. Harshit Rana
7. Mayank Markande
8. Umran Malik
9. Vaibhav Arora
10. Varun Chakravarthy

Talking about Kolkata Knight Riders, the team should retain a total of 10 Indian players for IPL 2026. Their biggest headache will be whether to retain or release Venkatesh Iyer. The team paid 24 Cr to Venkatesh, but his use in the team was not even worth 2 Cr. It’s quite logical for KKR to save that money, and buy someone else in the Auction. Barring Iyer, the team should retain all imp Indian stars like Rahane, Rinku, Chakravarthy, Harshit, etc.

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

1. Abdul Samad
2. Ayush Badoni
3. Himmat Singh
4. Rishabh Pant (c)
5. Arshin Kulkarni
6. Shahbaz Ahmed
7. Akash Deep
8. Akash Singh
9. Avesh Khan
10. Digvesh Rathi
11. Prince Yadav
12. Ravi Bishnoi
13. Shardul Thakur

Talking about Lucknow Super Giants, the team should retain 13 Indian players for IPL 2026. Their biggest dilemma will be to release a few redundant Indian pacers. They have almost 8-9 Indian pacers, and that’s just one too many. Given the injury issues to Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav, combined with their high price, it will be ideal to release them. But other than these names, they still have many Indian players like Rishabh Pant, Digvesh Rathi, Akash Deep, etc., whom they will retain for IPL 2026.

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

1. Rohit Sharma
2. Suryakumar Yadav
3. Tilak Varma
4. Robin Minz
5. Arjun Tendulkar
6. Hardik Pandya (c)
7. Naman Dhir
8. Raj Bawa
9. Ashwani Kumar
10. Deepak Chahar
11. Jasprit Bumrah
12. Karn Sharma
13. Vignesh Puthur

The Mumbai Indians team is known for quality Indian talent, and going by their squad, the team should retain a total of 13 Indian players. Right from Captain Hardik Pandya to Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, etc., the team will retain almost all Indian contingent. This also goes with their DNA of retaining the core Indian players whom they trust to deliver.

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

1. Nehal Wadhera
2. Priyansh Arya
3. Pyla Avinash
4. Shashank Singh
5. Shreyas Iyer (c)
6. Prabsimran Singh
7. Harpreet Brar
8. Musheer Khan
9. Suryansh Shedge
10. Arshdeep Singh
11. Kuldeep Sen
12. Pravin Dubey
13. Vyshak Vijaykumar
14. Yash Thakur
15. Yuzvendra Chahal

Coming to the Punjab Kings team, they should retain the maximum number of Indian players for IPL 2026, and we have 15 names in front of us. Punjab Kings is a team that is filled with quality Uncapped Indian players, and seeing their performance in IPL 2025, they will play a crucial role in IPL 2026. The only discussion they might have is whether to continue with Yuzvendra Chahal at such a high price. The answer is they might give one more year to Chahal to see how he goes about things next year.

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

1. Nitish Rana
2. Shubham Dubey
3. Vaibhav Suryavanshi
4. Yashasvi Jaiswal
5. Dhruv Jurel
6. Sanju Samson (c)
7. Riyan Parag
8. Akash Madhwal
9. Sandeep Sharma
10. Tushar Deshpande
11. Yudhvir Charak

The Rajasthan Royals team should retain most of their Indian core, and they have 11 names in front of them. There is a rumour about Sanju Samson getting traded to CSK, but all these rumours will be buried as we near the IPL 2026 Mini Auction. Aside from Sanju, the team should retain the core of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Riyan Parag, Dhurv Jurel, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, etc.

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

1. Devdutt Padikkal
2. Mayank Agarwal
3. Rajat Patidar (c)
4. Swastik Chikara
5. Virat Kohli
6. Jitesh Sharma
7. Krunal Pandya
8. Manoj Bhandage
9. Swapnil Singh
10. Bhuvneshwar Kumar
11. Rasikh Dar
12. Suyash Sharma
13. Yash Dayal

Another team that will retain as much Indian talent as possible is the IPL 2025 champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The RCB team should retain a total of 13 Indian players for IPL 2026. Aside from the usual names like Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the team should also retain Devdutt Padikkal, Mayank Agarwal, and Suyash Sharma. The trophy victory should allow RCB to retain most of the core.

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

1. Abhinav Manohar
2. Aniket Verma
3. Atharva Taide
4. Ishan Kishan
5. Abhishek Sharma
6. Harsh Dubey
7. Nitish Reddy
8. Harshal Patel,
9. Jaydev Unadkat,
10. Simarjeet Singh
11. Zeeshan Ansari

Talking about Sunrisers Hyderabad, they should retain a total of 11 Indian players for IPL 2026. SRH is known for Overseas players, but they do have good Indian talent too to retain. Among the quality names that they will look to retain are Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Reddy, Harshal Patel, etc. However, SRH may release Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar among the players who do not add much value to the team.

So, that’s about the best retained Indian players list for IPL 2026. Which Indian players should each team release for IPL 2026? Please email your thoughts to ipladdafounder@gmail.com. 

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