Cameron Green, Ravi Bishnoi, and Venkatesh Iyer are expected to be among the most wanted players at the IPL 2026 auction. Since most of the top stars have already been kept by their teams, the players who were released could get very high bids.
Many teams aren’t looking to build a complete squad from scratch, they mostly want to fill the gaps in their lineup. Even with so much demand, some well-known players may still go unsold.
3 star players who can go unsold at IPL 2026 auction
Sarfaraz Khan might be the only well-known Indian player to go unsold this time. At 28, he hasn’t played in the IPL since 2023 and didn’t attract any bids in the last two auctions. In 2025, he has played just two T20 games. He did score a century recently, but it came against Assam, which isn’t considered a strong team. Overall, his career numbers, an average of 24.81 and a strike rate of 132.28, are not very impressive.
Steve Smith has gone unsold in the IPL auction for the last 4 years and hasn’t played a match in the league since 2021. Daryn Mitchell was paid INR 14 crore by the CSK in 2024, but his abysmal performance saw him get no suitors at the mega auction last year. Both are expected to go unsold again.
Josh Inglis will only be available for 4 matches in IPL 2026. His base price of ₹2 crore isn’t very high, but teams may not want to bring in a replacement so early in the season. Meanwhile, Devon Conway’s T20 form has dipped over the past couple of years, and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have released him. With stronger, more aggressive openers in the market, it’s unlikely that franchises will pick him.
