Lucknow Super Giants

The accelerated rounds featured further big purchases, including Pathum Nissanka, Jason Holder, Mustafizur Rahman, Liam Livingstone and Josh Inglis.

KKR will walk into the IPL 2026 players auction with the biggest purse, while five-time champions MI will have the smallest purse

Additionally, LSG surprised many by securing uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Mukul Choudhary for ₹2.60 crore, after a bidding war with Mumbai Indians.

PL 2026 mini auction: Cameron Green tops the list at Rs 25.20 cr. Check top 20 costliest buys, including Pathirana, Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer, with teams and prices.

Under the IPL's maximum-fee rule, an overseas player's auction fee is capped at the lower of the highest retention slab and the highest price fetched at the previous mega auction.

The IPL 2026 Auction is scheduled to begin on December 16 (Tuesday), 2025. The IPL mini auction 2026 will begin at 2:30 PM IST.

On December 16, IPL 2026 auction is scheduled to start at 2:30 PM IST in Abu Dhabi. All the ten IPL franchisees are set to spent around Rs 237.55 crore to fill up 77 available slots.

IPL 2026's retention list is defined by three themes: the blockbuster Jadeja-Samson-Curran swap, the release of several global stars, and franchises making sharp value

Among overseas players, LSG have parted ways with David Miller and West Indies fast bowler Shamar Joseph. These moves mark the franchise's strategic adjustments as they prepare for the upcoming season

Sources close to the negotiations reveal that the trade is expected to be an all-cash deal, with Lucknow Super Giants set to pay SRH INR 10 crore (approximately $1.12 million).

Thakur, who represented LSG in the 2025 IPL season, has been traded to Mumbai Indians for his existing player fee of Rs. 2 crore.

Since this is not a mega auction, franchises have the freedom to retain or release as many players as they wish.

Former India U-19 fielding coach Abhay Sharma is likely to join Lucknow Super Giants as fielding coach for 2026 Indian Premier League. Sharma's latest assignment was with the Uganda national team and as head coach, he was part of the side's maiden World Cup campaign in 2024. The 56-year-old has also coached the Indian women's cricket team. After making the play-offs in their first two seasons, LSG finished seventh in the previous two editions. The franchise recently announced Tom Moody as its director of cricket with New Zealand great Kane Williamson named its strategic director. Rishabh Pant is the leader of the side coached by Justin Langer. "Abhay has extensive experience working with the leading Indian cricketers and that should come in handy at LSG," said a BCCI source. The former first class cricketer has worked with the likes of Pant, Shubman Gill, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Avesh Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal at the U-19 level. He was part of India U-19 support staff in the

IPL 2026 retention rules allow franchises to retain an unlimited number of players, with no cap on the number of capped Indian players, overseas players, or uncapped players they can keep

Veteran Australian coach Tom Moody joins Lucknow Super Giants as global director of cricket ahead of IPL 2026 auction, marking his return to the league after leaving Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2022.

Williamson's addition strengthens a backroom staff already undergoing change. Earlier, the franchise roped in former India bowling coach Bharat Arun for the upcoming season

Reports suggest that Devon Conway, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tripathi, and Sam Curran may find themselves on CSK's release list

LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka, who is currently in the UK attending matches in The Hundred, is also expected to name a Director of Cricket soon.

Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun, who recently ended his ties with Kolkata Knight Riders, has been roped in by Lucknow Super Giants in the same capacity even as the official announcement is awaited. "Yes, Arun has joined LSG and a formal announcement is expected soon," a source close to the franchise told PTI on conditions of anonymity. Arun for the past few years was associated with KKR but after a poor eighth place finish in 2025, the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise is in the process of rejigging its coaching staff with Abhishek Nayar and Dwayne Bravo all set to call the shots. Hence Chandrakant Pandit and Arun, the two veterans parted ways. Similarly, after a seventh place finish in the last edition, LSG are also making changes to their support staff. The LSG bowling wasn't top notch during last season and much of it could be attributed to the absence of India's fastest bowler Mayank Yadav from all but two games. Arun, one of the finest bowling coaches the national team h

GT's Sai Sudharsan claimed the Orange Cap with 759 runs in 15 matches. He was followed by Mumbai Indians' Suryakumar Yadav, along with Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill.