By Admin 
Before the auction for IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders have retained 12 players including Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane. The most surprising thing in KKR’s retention list is that they have also released their poster boy Andre Russell. Russell has been playing for this team since 2014. KKR has released a total of 9 players.
List of retained players of KKR
- Rinku Singh
- Angrish Raghuvanshi
- Ajinkya Rahane
- Manish Pandey
- rovman powell
- Sunil Narine
- Ramandeep Singh
- Anukul Roy
- Varun Chakraborty
- Harshit Rana
- Vaibhav Arora
- Umran Malik
KKR released these players
- Lavneeth Sisodia
- quinton dekock
- Rehmanullah Gurbaz
- Venkatesh Iyer
- andre russell
- Moeen Ali
- spencer johnson
- Enrique Norkhia
- Chetan Sakariya
UNPRECEDENTED!!! pic.twitter.com/QXGY3qXUqz
— KnightRidersXtra (@KKR_Xtra) November 15, 2025
How much purse does KKR have in IPL 2026 auction?
Kolkata Knight Riders has released many of its expensive players, the name of Venkatesh Iyer is also included in it. Venkatesh was bought by KKR in the last auction for Rs 23.75 crore. The other expensive player to be released is Russell, who was retained by KKR for Rs 12 crore before the last edition.
KKR has also released Quinton de Kock, who was priced at Rs 3.6 crore. This is also a surprising decision, because the team has also released the second wicket keeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz along with him. Now KKR will be looking for a good wicket keeper in the auction.
Kolkata Knight Riders are left with a purse of Rs 64.3 crore in the IPL 2026 auction. There are slots left for 13 players, which means KKR can buy a maximum of 13 players in the auction. The team can buy maximum 6 foreign players.
When will IPL 2026 auction take place?
The auction for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League will be held in December, it will be a mini auction which is likely to last for 1 day. IPL auction is likely to take place on December 15. Its venue is under consideration, it can also happen outside India in UAE. However, the venue has not been decided yet.