IPL 2027 Retention Hub — Deadline, Rules, Salary Cap & Every Team's List

Retention deadline: 15 November 2026 · Salary cap: Rs 157 crore · Mini-auction: 16 December 2026, Goa (reported)

How Retention Works in a Mini-Auction Year

In a mega-auction year (most recently 2025), retention is a formal event with price slabs and Right-to-Match cards. In a mini-auction year like 2027, the mechanics are quieter but the stakes are the same: contracts from the mega cycle run on, and each franchise decides which players to keep at their contracted salary and which to release back into the pool. Every rupee of retained salary is deducted from the Rs 157 crore cap before the auction, so a team's retention list IS its auction strategy — keep too many expensive names and there is no purse left to fix the gaps; release too many and December becomes a rebuild under pressure.

Two side-channels shape the lists before they are written. The trade window (open until 9 December 2026) lets franchises swap contracted players directly — it has already moved Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, T. Natarajan and Zeeshan Ansari. And coaching changes matter: three franchises (Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi) have new head coaches for 2027, and a new coach's first retention list is the clearest statement of how they intend to play.

Key Dates

Last Cycle's Retentions — the 2025 Mega Auction Recap

The baseline every 2027 list is judged against: who each franchise retained at the 2025 mega auction, their top-priced retention, and the purse they carried into that auction.

Team Retention Pages

Frequently Asked Questions