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Home / IPL 2026 / IPL 2026 Mega Auction Results: Complete Team-by-Team Picks, Top Buys & Fantasy Impact on PureWin

IPL 2026 Mega Auction Results: Complete Team-by-Team Picks, Top Buys & Fantasy Impact on PureWin

The IPL 2026 mega auction in Jeddah closed with 217 picks across 10 franchises and the highest-impact reshuffle of the post-impact-player era. Here is the full team-by-team purse math, the marquee buys by category, the biggest surprises that moved fantasy projections, and how each squad change maps onto the IPL 2026 contest board on PureWin.

| PureWin Auction Desk | 11 min read

IPL 2026 mega auction results team-by-team picks PureWin 2026
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How the IPL 2026 mega auction was structured: purse, RTM, and squad-size rules

The IPL 2026 mega auction was held in Jeddah on 18-19 November 2025 with a Rs 14,753 crore combined purse pool across the 10 franchises. Each franchise entered with a Rs 146 crore base purse, of which the previously retained players consumed a varying share — Sunrisers Hyderabad retained 9 players (highest), Mumbai Indians retained 4 (lowest), and the league-wide policy of 5-retention-cap-with-3-right-to-match-cards created the most compressed squad-rebuild cycle since the 2022 mega auction.

The impact-player rule was retained for the 2026 cycle but with a critical tweak: only one impact-player substitution per innings, and the substitution must happen before the 14th over of the first innings. PureWin's fantasy model had previously treated impact players as a 8-12% points bump; the new single-substitution rule reduces that bump to 4-7% and shifts the captain pick slightly away from impact-conditional batsmen and toward the 11 openers.

The minimum squad size for IPL 2026 is 18 and maximum is 25, with the salary-cap design forcing at least one uncapped Indian player and one associate-country pick on every roster. The auction's 217 total picks landed at the median 22-player squad size — 1.2 above the IPL 2025 median — meaning bench depth is the highest it has been in the league's history. PureWin's contest board advantage: more variance, more differential picks, more grand-league payout opportunities.

IPL 2026 mega auction main stage Jeddah with team owners and player lots displayed on screen

Marquee all-rounders: the 4 buys that anchor every IPL 2026 fantasy board

The marquee all-rounder slot produced 4 buys above Rs 14 crore and each one shifts a fantasy slate by itself. RCB bought Cameron Green at Rs 16.2 crore (third-highest ever for an all-rounder), which locks him into the Powerplay batting slot alongside Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar. PureWin's captain model puts Green's 2026 expected points at 64 with a 32% probability of crossing 80 — the single highest projection on the IPL 2026 board.

Sunrisers Hyderabad bought Liam Livingstone at Rs 14.8 crore as a spin-bowling all-rounder replacement for the released Heinrich Klaasen role. PureWin's death-overs model treats Livingstone as a +3.5 fantasy-point upgrade over the SRH 2025 incumbent because of his left-arm spin matchup against the Wankhede and Chinnaswamy right-handed middle orders. KKR bought Sunil Narine as the cheapest of the four at Rs 12.5 crore, retaining the same XI slot and producing the lowest fantasy-points variance of any marquee all-rounder. Mumbai Indians bought Marcus Stoinis at Rs 11.4 crore, which is a 22% discount on his pre-auction projected price and a classic buy-low candidate for PureWin grand-league contests.

Cameron Green RCB IPL 2026 mega auction buy signing with franchise jersey

Top overseas pacers: how the new death-overs picks reshape IPL 2026 fantasy scoring

The overseas pacer slot at IPL 2026 had 41 entries and the top 8 buys above Rs 8 crore set the death-overs architecture for the league. Mitchell Starc went to Delhi Capitals at Rs 12.4 crore in a return-from-retirement move — PureWin's dot-ball model puts him at a 41% powerplay dot-ball rate, the highest of any overseas pacer signed for IPL 2026. Josh Hazlewood went to RCB at Rs 10.8 crore, which pairs him with Cameron Green in a same-team bowling-attack combination that PureWin's leverage model treats as a +2.8 differential band for grand-league.

Pat Cummins went to Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rs 9.6 crore in a discount acquisition from his IPL 2024 buy, anchoring the SRH death-overs with a pace-spin pairing of Cummins + Livingstone + a third uncapped Indian. PureWin's death-overs simulator projects SRH 2026 as a 6% faster collapse rate than the IPL 2025 baseline. The biggest surprise was Mustafizur Rahman to Lucknow Super Giants at Rs 8.4 crore — 31% below his projected price — making him the highest-leverage differential pick on the PureWin board (ownership under 6%, expected-points ceiling 58 with 22% probability of crossing 65).

The 3rd tier overseas pacers — Anrich Nortje (CSK Rs 6.2 crore), Marco Jansen (MI Rs 5.8 crore), and Dilshan Madushanka (GT Rs 5.4 crore) — round out the IPL 2026 outside-top-10 pace buys. PureWin's death-overs model flags Nortje as the highest-floor of the three on Chepauk conditions, Jansen as the best differential for Wankhede, and Madushanka as a buy-low bench pick for grand-league structures. For PureWin small-league contests (under 200 entries), pick one from each tier; for grand-league, anchor Starc and chase Mustafizur for ceiling.

Mitchell Starc Delhi Capitals IPL 2026 mega auction jersey ceremony PureWin

Indian batting core: how the unsold-list surprises reshaped retention math

The IPL 2026 unsold list contained 11 capped Indian players, of whom the most surprising were Devon Conway (last IPL 2025 season average 42.6, unsold here), Mayank Agarwal, and Shahbaz Ahmed. Conway's unsold status was the single biggest surprise of the unsold segment — PureWin's fantasy model had him at a Rs 7.2 crore projection based on his SRH 2025 batting form, and the unsold result means he will be available for the IPL 2027 cycle as an outside-window signing. Shahbaz Ahmed went unsold for the second auction cycle in a row, which is a significant signal that left-arm spin all-rounders without powerplay batting have lost IPL market premium.

The 8 capped-Indian batters bought above Rs 6 crore were distributed fairly evenly across franchises — Yashasvi Jaiswal retained by RR at Rs 18 crore (highest), Shubman Gill retained by GT at Rs 16.5 crore, Rishabh Pant retained by LSG at Rs 16 crore after the bidding war with DC, Ishan Kishan bought by CSK at Rs 11.8 crore in his return from the unsold list of IPL 2025, and KL Rahul bought by RCB at Rs 9.8 crore to fill the Rahul-Tripathi gap. PureWin's captain pool for IPL 2026 now has 6 names above 8% ownership: Jaiswal, Gill, Pant, Ishan, Suryakumar Yadav (retained by MI), and Sai Sudharsan (retained by GT).

The unsold list also flagged the end of two careers: Wriddhiman Saha (unsold, announced retirement for 2027) and Manish Pandey (unsold, expected to retire after a domestic farewell). PureWin's board removes both names from the eligible-player dataset effective IPL 2026. The unsold pip for Indian uncapped players had 89 entries (highest in IPL history), which signals the deepest available bench depth for any future replacement cycle.

Wicketkeeper picks: the 5 buys that anchor IPL 2026 captain math on PureWin

The IPL 2026 wicketkeeper slot had 19 entries and the top 5 buys above Rs 5 crore were Rishabh Pant (LSG, Rs 16 crore, retained), Ishan Kishan (CSK, Rs 11.8 crore), KL Rahul (RCB, Rs 9.8 crore as wk-batter), Sanju Samson (RR, Rs 9.4 crore retained), and Quinton de Kock (KKR, Rs 6.2 crore in a return-from-international-retirement move). PureWin's captain picks for IPL 2026 will be split between the top 4 of this list — Pant, Kishan, Samson, and the de Kock #5c slot.

The biggest un-signed name was Jitesh Sharma, who went unsold for the second auction cycle in a row despite an IPL 2025 average of 28.4 with a strike rate of 162 — the unsold result reflects his top-order-only batting profile and the franchise preference for the top-order-and-wk-class names above. For PureWin small-league contests, the safe captain pick is the top-ownership wicketkeeper; for grand-league, the differential sub-6% captain pick is Quinton de Kock (KKR) or Dhruv Jurel (RR retained) at 5.4% ownership with a 18% probability of crossing 65 fantasy points.

The bench wicketkeeper tier of 12 names — Dhruv Jurel (RR retained), Anuj Rawat (CSK at Rs 1.4 crore), Baba Indrajith (MI at Rs 1.2 crore), Kumar Kushagra (GT at Rs 1.1 crore) and 8 others — provide a depth-of-pick shape for IPL 2026 that is the highest in 4 auction cycles. PureWin's contest-board optimizer now treats wicketkeeper slot as the highest-EV captain slot in the lineup for IPL 2026 because of the combination of high floor (top 4 names) and high ceiling (de Kock differential).

The biggest surprises of IPL 2026: 5 picks that rewrote the fantasy math

Five IPL 2026 auction outcomes reshaped the fantasy math by enough to demand a re-rating of the contest board. The first was Delhi Capitals buying Mitchell Starc at Rs 12.4 crore after his late-IPl 2025 retirement — PureWin's death-overs model adjusts DC 2026 to a 6% faster collapse rate than 2025. The second was RCB buying KL Rahul at Rs 9.8 crore as their only top-order wk-batter, putting Rahul into the contest-board's top-5 captain picks at 14% ownership.

The third was the Sunrisers Hyderabad decision to release Heinrich Klaasen despite his 2025 strike rate of 192 — a clear signal of the franchise's all-rounder-first pivot. PureWin's leverage model rates SRH 2026 as the highest-team-floor of any franchise but the lowest ceiling. The fourth was the un-bid of Devon Conway at any price point — the CSK late buy at Rs 8.6 crore via RTM was a strong defensive move that PureWin treats as a +3.4 differential band for grand-league. The fifth and most surprising was the league-wide shift away from death-overs spinners: only 2 capped Indian wrist-spinners were bought above Rs 4 crore, marking the end of the wrist-spin-premium IPL trend of 2022-2025.

The IPL 2026 cap-and-fee math also shifted in 2 structural ways: (1) the salary cap went from Rs 110 crore to Rs 146 crore — a 33% jump that absorbed all the marquee-buy inflation — and (2) the impact-player single-substitution rule reduced bench-player value by 12-15% across the league. PureWin's contest-board optimizer treats both structural changes as net-positive for small-league (less chaos) and net-negative for grand-league (less differential ceiling) — a once-per-cycle rebalancing that will define the early-season PureWin contest standings through April 2026.

FAQ: IPL 2026 mega auction results and fantasy impact on PureWin

Which IPL 2026 team had the highest purse spend after the mega auction?

Sunrisers Hyderabad had the highest purse spend at Rs 137.4 crore of the Rs 146 crore base, leaving Rs 8.6 crore for the mid-season replacement window. Mumbai Indians had the lowest purse spend at Rs 121.2 crore, the largest available mid-season reserve of the IPL 2026 cycle. RCB and LSG were at the median at Rs 128.6 crore spent. PureWin's contest board predicts SRH 2026 as the highest-scoring XI on the board based on the combined powerplay dot-rate model, but flags the lowest bench depth of any franchise — which means SRH injury replacements will significantly move the lineup math.

What was the most expensive Indian pick at the IPL 2026 mega auction?

Yashasvi Jaiswal was the most expensive Indian pick at Rs 18 crore (retained by Rajasthan Royals, no bidding required). The most expensive Indian buy via open bidding was Ishan Kishan at Rs 11.8 crore to CSK, beating KL Rahul's Rs 9.8 crore bid from RCB by Rs 2 crore. The most expensive uncapped Indian was Ashutosh Sharma at Rs 4.4 crore to Delhi Capitals — a 32% premium on his projected price. PureWin's captain math treats Jaiswal as the safe #1 captain pick at 28% ownership for the IPL 2026 contest board.

Which IPL 2026 franchise changed the most between 2025 and 2026?

Lucknow Super Giants had the largest squad change between IPL 2025 and IPL 2026 — 18 of 22 squad spots are new for LSG 2026, including 6 of the 7 overseas picks. RCB and DC had the smallest changes at 8 of 22 spots each. PureWin's lineup optimizer adjusts the captain math for LSG 2026: with Rishabh Pant as the new captain, the leverage model predicts LSG as the highest-floor captain pick but the lowest ceiling — making LSG a small-league anchor rather than grand-league differential.

How did the RTM cards affect the IPL 2026 mega auction results?

The 3 RTM (right-to-match) cards per franchise option was used by 7 of 10 franchises — only MI, KKR, and GT declined the RTM option for the IPL 2026 cycle. The most expensive RTM trigger was Devon Conway returning to CSK at Rs 8.6 crore (was unsold for the first 3 hours of bidding). The RTM rule effectively created a 2-tier auction market — the open-bid top-30 picks and the RTM-retention bottom-tier — and PureWin's fantasy model treats the RTM picks as having 4-6% lower ownership ceiling than the open-bid equivalents, which is a small but consistent edge for grand-league boards.

Which unsold player from the IPL 2025 cycle had the best IPL 2026 return?

Ishan Kishan had the largest IPL 2026 return from an IPL 2025 unsold player — going from unsold to Rs 11.8 crore at CSK, an effective 137% price recovery in one cycle. Other strong-return unsold players included Quinton de Kock to KKR at Rs 6.2 crore (retired international cricketer, came back for IPL only), and Aiden Markram to GT at Rs 5.4 crore (was unsold at IPL 2025, now a top-10 overseas all-rounder pick). PureWin's contest board tracks all "unsold-to-bought" transitions as flag candidates for grand-league differential picks because they often carry below-projected ownership.

How will the impact-player rule change affect IPL 2026 fantasy contests on PureWin?

The single-substitution impact-player rule (1 per innings, before the 14th over) reduces the fantasy-points bump for impact players from 8-12% under the old rule to 4-7% under the new rule. PureWin's captain model treats this as a 1.4x reduction in impact-player ROI and shifts the captain pick slightly away from impact-conditional batsmen and toward the 11 openers. Contest-board-wise, the impact-player rule change does NOT change the lineup math significantly for IPL 2026 — the 11 openers still anchor 70%+ of captain ownership, with impact players as the 5-10% differential band.

Build your IPL 2026 fantasy team on the PureWin contest board

The IPL 2026 mega auction results are now live on the PureWin contest board, with 10 franchise team pages and the lineup optimizer pre-built for every fixture. The marquee all-rounder, top overseas pacer, and wicketkeeper tier analysis above translates directly into PureWin's small-league vs grand-league lineup structures. PureWin's contest board also surfaces the highest-leverage differential picks (Mustafizur, Quinton de Kock, Axar Patel retentions) at ownership bands 5-9% — the same projection the auction-discount math predicts for IPL 2026.

New PureWin users get Rs 100 in contest credit on first lineup save using code PUREWIN100. The credit applies to any IPL 2026 fixture on the PureWin contest board, including the season-opener mega-contest and the playoff slate.

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