IPL 2026 Auction Surprise: Which Top Players Failed to Find Teams?
IPL 2026 auction left fans guessing—who won, who lost, and which players went unsold? Complete details inside.
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The IPL 2026 mini-auction finally ended up being a twelve-week-talked-about-event, with the entire IPL franchisee investing a whopping amount of Rs 215.45 crores, counting 77 players as their new pets, international players’ like 29 individuals.
The whole auction extravaganza had the Kolkata Knight Riders making the biggest and boldest move by taking in the Australian all-rounder, Cameron Green, for a staggering price of Rs 25.20 crores which placed him at the top of all foreign players in the league with his transfer fee.
However, with all the glamour and glitter of the top players, a number of both international and local players remained left out in the cold. Among the noteworthy foreign players without a team were the dashing Australian opener Jake Fraser-McGurk, the distinguished English wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow, and the formidable New Zealand players Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway. Other outstanding non-Indian cricketers who also missed the boat were Alzarri Joseph, Gus Atkinson, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Spencer Johnson.
All 79 players (48 Indians and 31 overseas) were listed as unsold after the auction process, which included the Indian players having a hard time fighting the competition. Some of these players were Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat, Karn Sharma, Murugan Ashwin, and Chetan Sakariya who had all represented India internationally but were still left behind in the race.
The auction kicked off with a mix of players, with 369 being initially listed and just 156 finally going through the bidding. Big names like ex-Australian captain Steve Smith and former India international Mayank Agarwal were completely overlooked. By the end of the auction, 19 players had been selected in the subsequent accelerated rounds, among them Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan who had initially gone unsold.
A few high-profile players decided not to enter the IPL 2026 season. Earlier, Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis had declared their non-participation in the IPL 2026 as major decision makers of the teams’ tactics.
The auction has paved the way for IPL 2026, which has been noticed in the growing trend towards international signings of larger than life values, but at the same time, it has also shown who the local players are that are ready to compete and fight for the spots.
