Kolkata Knight Riders

Full Squad: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Rahul Tripathi (INR 75 lakh), Finn Allen (INR 2 Cr), Tejasvi Singh (INR 3 Cr), Tim Seifert (INR 1.50 Cr), Cameron Green (INR 25.20 Cr), Sarthak Ranjan (INR 30 lakh), Daksh Kamra (INR 30 lakh), Rachin Ravindra (INR 2 Cr), Prashant Solanki (INR 30 lakh), Matheesha Pathirana (INR 18 Cr), Kartik Tyagi (INR 30 lakh), Mustafizur Rahman (INR 9.20 Cr), Akash Deep (INR 1 Cr)

What they did at this auction:

Heading into the auction with the biggest purse but without Andre Russell, KKR went all out for Cameron Green early and put in the most expensive bid ever for an overseas player to stave off CSK's advances and secure the all-rounder's services. They were also looking for an overseas pacer and paid 18 crore early for Matheesha Pathirana before dishing out 9.20 crore for a potential back-up in Mustafizur Rahman.

After releasing all three keepers from their squad, they first got Finn Allen and later added Tim Seifert, who recently hit a century in BBL, with both capable of opening should the management decide against the incumbent Narine-Rahane duo. Delhi's Tejasvi Singh was the back-up keeper they went for. KKR were also looking for a middle-order batter but their batting picks - Rahul Tripathi and Rachin Ravindra - are more comfortable against the new ball, heating up the contest up top. Akash Deep and Kartik Tyagi were the Indian pacers while Daksh Kamra and Sarthak Ranjan were the spinning allrounders. Legspinner Prashant Solanki completed the 25-member squad.

Rajasthan Royals

Full squad: Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Jofra Archer, Kwena Maphaka, Lhuan-Dre Pretorious, Nandre Burger, Ravindra Jadeja, Riyan Parag, Sam Curran, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashaswi Jaiswal, Yudhvir Charak, Aman Rao (INR 30 lakh), Ravi Singh (INR 95 lakh), Ravi Bishnoi (INR 7.20 cr), Yash Raj Punja (INR 30 lakh), Vignesh Puthur (INR 30 lakh), Sushant Mishra (INR 90 lakh), Brijesh Sharma (INR 30 lakh), Adam Milne (INR 2.40 cr), Kuldeep Sen (INR 75 lakh)

What they did at this auction:

With seven overseas players already in their squad prior to the auction, Royals' primary target was to secure backup local talent. And they were fairly successful in securing them. The likes of Prashant Veer and Auqib Nabi were unattainable due to lack of funds and they failed to buy Naman Tiwari and Ashok Sharma as well. In their bid to buy a backup keeper for Dhruv Jurel, Royals settled for Ravi Singh after getting outbid for Mukul Choudhary.

They did secure their first-choice spin target though in Ravi Bishnoi for INR 7.20 Cr and would have been pleased with plugging the one glaring gap in their squad. Stylish opener Aman Rao, who recently impressed in SMAT, was brought in whereas the likes of Brijesh Sharma, Prithvi Raj, Vignesh Puthur and Kuldeep Sen were all secured for their base price. After losing out on two fast bowlers back-to-back, Royals got into a bidding war for Sushant Mishra and eventually bought him. Also in the pace bowling department, they were able to secure a backup in Adam Milne to complete their overseas slots.

Delhi Capitals

Full Squad: KL Rahul, Abishek Porel (wk), Nitish Rana, Karun Nair/Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, T. Natarajan, Ajay Mandal, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurna Vijay, Dushmantha Chameera, Pathum Nissanka (INR 4 crore), David Miller (INR 2 crore), Prithvi Shaw (INR 75 lakh), Sahil Parakh (INR 30 lakh), Ben Duckett (INR 2 crore), Auqib Nabi Dar (INR 8.4 crore), Kyle Jamieson (INR 2 crore), Lungi Ngidi (INR 2 crore)

What they did at this auction:

DC entered the auction with a purse of INR 21.8 crore, with a more or less settled XII already and looking for reinforcements. To that end, they did a fine job of ticking most boxes that needed addressing. Their most pressing concern from last edition was the frequently-changing opening pair, and to that end they roped in Sri Lanka's destructive opener Pathum Nissanka and an Indian back-up in Prithvi Shaw.

To address their bowling concerns, DC went hard for Matheesha Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman but lost out on both and eventually settled for Lungi Ngidi and Kyle Jamieson - both coming in at base price. An absolute steal at INR 2 crore, David Miller - a proven middle-order basher in the shortest format - joins the likes of Tristan Stubbs and Ashutosh Sharma. DC's costliest buy on the evening was the uncapped J&K pace-bowling allrounder Auqib Nabi Dar whose knack for early strikes make him an exciting PowerPlay prospect in their bid for a maiden title.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Full Squad: Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins, Smaran Ravichandaran, Travis Head, Zeeshan Ansari, Salil Arora (INR 1.50 Cr), Shivang Kumar (INR 30 lakh), Liam Livingstone (INR 13 Cr), Jack Edwards (INR 3 Cr), Amit Kumar (INR 30 lakh), Krains Fuletra (INR 30 lakh), Sakib Hussain (INR 30 lakh), Onkar Tarmale (INR 30 lakh), Praful Hinge (INR 30 lakh), Shivam Mavi (INR 75 lakh)

What they did at this auction:

They failed to bag three big-money signings after going far. SRH's first option to fill the hole of a PowerPlay pacer having traded Mohammed Shami was the J&K quick Auqib Nabi. But they lost that race to Delhi Capitals after pushing till 8.20 crore. They eventually stock-piled a few domestic pacers in Shivam Mavi, Prafun Hinge, Omkar Tarmale and Sakib Hussain. It offers them choices but whether they've bagged IPL quality PowerPlay operator remains to be seen. Mavi does have five seasons of IPL experience with KKR and has bowled first up, but his last fixture came in 2022.

SRH then lost the two joint-most expensive uncapped picks in IPL history - a left-arm spin all-rounder Prashant Veer and wicket-keeper batter Kartik Sharma. They reinvested a fraction of the 14 crore from the failed bid for Kartik, in bringing in Salil Arora for 1.50 crore. Salil fits right into SRH's recent batting ideas - having smashed 359 runs in 9 T20Is at a strike rate of 197.25. Liam Livingstone for 13 crore adds to the top-order heft too, while also offering handy spin bowling. SRH also managed to bring in the left-arm leg-spinner Krains Fuletra, who featured as a net bowler in IPL 2025 and impressed the team.

Mumbai Indians

Full Squad: AM Ghazanfar, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Markande (traded), Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raghu Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Shardul Thakur (traded), Sherfane Rutherford (traded), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Trent Boult, Will Jacks, Danish Malewar (INR 30 lakh), Quinton de Kock (INR 1 Cr), Atharva Ankolekar (INR 30 lakh), Mayank Rawat (INR 30 lakh), Mohammad Izhar (INR 30 lakh)

What they did at this auction:

Mumbai spent the evening largely as a bystander to the spectacle, having arrived with a paltry purse of 2.75 crore. They spent 1 crore from that on Quinton de Kock, nicking him at his base price in the early stages when other teams seemed to go with a conservative approach. The South African keeper-bat, who recently smashed a 46-ball 90, comes as an alternative to Ryan Rickelton at the top of the order. MI had Jonny Bairstow filling in for Rickelton in IPL 2025 when the South African was unavailable in the business end of the season. There is also a sense of familiarity for both player and the franchise, having had him on their squad for three seasons from 2019 to 2021.

For the rest of the time, MI added three uncapped Indian players to their ranks for base price of 30 lakh. Last season, the only Indian spin option that got enough games was Vignesh Puthur, who they released. They've traded leg-spinner Mayank Markande, who broke through at MI in 2018, while also adding Atharva Ankolekar (left-arm spin all-rounder) and Mayank Rawat (right-arm off-spin all-rounder) to the list of options. Izhar joins Ashwani Kumar as a domestic left-arm pacer.