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.

Kolkata Knight Riders is planning to release Venkatesh Iyer. Iyer, who was bought by KKR in the mega auction with a huge bid of Rs 23.75 crore. According to Cricbuzz, Kolkata team can release Venkatesh Iyer, but can buy him again in the auction. Iyer has been playing for the KKR franchise since 2021.

Venkatesh Iyer was a flop in IPL 2025. In the 11 matches played in the season, only 142 runs were scored with his bat. There is speculation that apart from Iyer, Kolkata Knight Riders may also release Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje. Venkatesh Iyer had recently said about working with Gautam Gambhir that he expects the best performance from his players. Iyer said that if a player is performing averagely, it becomes difficult for him to keep up with Gambhir.

If we remember the mega auction, KKR had stubbornly bought Venkatesh Iyer. Lucknow Super Giants also showed interest in him, but backed out after a bid of Rs 7.75 crore. Royal Challengers Bangalore also made tireless efforts to buy Iyer, but RCB accepted defeat after a bid of Rs 23.50 crore.

The auction strategy of Kolkata Knight Riders last season was beyond comprehension. The team had also released Shreyas Iyer, so when the time came for the season to start, there was a lot of discussion about the captain. In the end, Ajinkya Rahane was chosen as the captain, who was not even sold in the first round of the auction. With the release of Venkatesh Iyer, KKR’s purse will be emptied by Rs 23.75 crore. This time KKR will especially have to consider keeping many captaincy options open.

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