indian premier league - ipl

Explained — Can a Retained Player Still Be Traded Before IPL 2026 Auction? Post-Deadline Rules

Amogh Bodas

Last updated: November 17, 2025

3 min read

The Indian Premier League (IPL) season is nearing, and the hype cannot get any lower. Franchises submitted their retention lists on November 15, and now the auction battle will commence. The IPL 2026 auction is scheduled for December 16, with franchises ready to break their bank for the players they wish to acquire.

Complete IPL 2026 Retention List, Released Players, and Remaining Purse Status

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) have opened the floodgates with one of the biggest trades the league has ever seen. Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran will don the pink jersey in IPL 2026, whereas Sanju Samson will don the yellow.

Going into the auction, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and CSK have the biggest purses to solve the loopholes in their squad. All franchises would be looking to better their prospects of having a crack at the trophy. In the process, an important question may arise. Can teams still trade retained players between the retention deadline and the IPL 2026 auction? Here’s everything that we need to know.

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Post Deadline Rules For the IPL 2026 Auction

For each IPL season, the organisers allocate a trading window. This trading window is segregated into two parts, namely the pre-auction and post-auction windows.

Pre-auction window: Opens a month after each IPL season ends, and closes a week before the auction.
Post-auction window: Opens after the auction each year (December 2025 in this case), and closes a month before the next IPL season (2026 in this case) starts.

Now comes the most important part! As per the post-deadline rules, only the retained players can be traded after the deadline till the auction. For example, a player who is retained by his franchise for IPL 2026 can be traded after November 15 for a player who is retained by another franchise.

However, post the IPL 2026 auction, this rule will tweak a bit, which is important to understand for every franchise and stakeholder involved in the tournament. Players bought in the IPL 2026 auction are not eligible for trade in the same season.

To add to that, both the franchise and the player must be willing for the trade to take place. If either party is unwilling to accept the same, the trade cannot take place as per the terms and conditions legally binding on both parties.

Furthermore, if two players having different salary structures are swapped/traded, the franchise acquiring the higher-paid resource shall have to pay the difference.

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