IPL 2026 Mini-Auction to Be Held in Abu Dhabi on December 16
The 2026 IPL auction will be held on December 16 in Abu Dhabi, marking the third year in a row that it takes place overseas. Earlier, the 2024 auction was in Dubai, and the 2025 mega auction happened in Jeddah. Like other mini auctions, the 2026 event will last one day. Before it, teams must decide which players from their 2025 squads to keep or release by 3 pm IST on November 15. After that, they will get a list of registered players to choose from, which will be shortened by the IPL to create the final auction pool.
The trading window opened after the 2025 season and will run until a week before the auction, then start again until a month before the 2026 IPL begins. Teams cannot trade players who will be bought in the 2026 auction. So far, there have been four confirmed trades among five teams. Not officially confirmed, but reports say the biggest trade could see Chennai Super Kings (CSK) getting Indian wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson from Rajasthan Royals, while Rajasthan might get allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran in return.
On Thursday, Mumbai Indians, also five-time champions, got India allrounder Shardul Thakur from Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for ₹2 crore and Sherfane Rutherford from Gujarat Titans (GT) for ₹2.60 crore in all-cash deals. In another reported move, LSG may have picked up Arjun Tendulkar from MI at his base price of ₹30 lakh. The tentative window for IPL 2026 is from March 15 to May 31.
Indian Premier League (IPL) Auction Venues Season-wise
| IPL Season | Auction Venue |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Mumbai |
| 2009 | Goa |
| 2010 | Mumbai |
| 2011 | Bengaluru |
| 2012 | Bengaluru |
| 2013 | Chennai |
| 2014 | Bengaluru |
| 2015 | Bengaluru |
| 2016 | Bengaluru |
| 2017 | Bengaluru |
| 2018 | Bengaluru |
| 2019 | Jaipur |
| 2020 | Kolkata |
| 2021 | Chennai |
| 2022 | Bengaluru |
| 2023 | Kochi |
| 2024 | Dubai |
| 2025 | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia |
| 2026 | Abu Dhabi, UAE |
