Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings are expected to be involved in a fierce bidding battle at the IPL 2026 mini-auction which will be held in Abu Dhabi on December 16 thanks to having the largest budgets among the 10 teams. KKR enter the auction with Rs 64.30 crore after releasing underperforming players like Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 23.75 crore) and Andre Russell (Rs 12 crore). CSK even after trading Sanju Samson have freed up Rs 40 crore by letting go of several players. KKR aim to rebuild their team almost from scratch while CSK are likely to strengthen their bowling and may try to bring back Matheesha Pathirana or target Ben Stokes if he is available after the Ashes. CSK have released Quinton de Kock Moeen Ali and Anrich Nortje but retained key players including Ajinkya Rahane Manish Pandey Sunil Narine Varun Chakaravarthy Rinku Singh Harshit Rana and Angkrish Raghuvanshi. KKR have 13 spots open in their squad including six for overseas players. Earlier all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was traded to Rajasthan Royals while keeper-batter Sanju Samson moved to CSK. With the player retention deadline ending on Sunday Jadeja switched to Royals at a reduced fee of Rs 14 crore (down from Rs 18 crore) and Samson will join CSK at his existing Rs 18 crore fee. Samson one of the most experienced IPL players has played 177 matches and will join CSK as his third team. He spent most of his career with RR except for the 2016 and 2017 seasons since making his debut in 2013. England all-rounder Sam Curran will move from CSK to RR for his existing Rs 2.4 crore fee following a trade. CSK Managing Director Kasi Viswanathan said the trade of Jadeja was by mutual agreement though it was a difficult decision. Chennai Super Kings have traded Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran for Sanju Samson from Rajasthan Royals. The team management felt the need of a top order Indian batsman he said. And this decision has been taken by the team management and it is a very tough decision leaving out Jadeja who has been responsible for the success of CSK over the years. It was probably one of the toughest decisions that CSK had to take. And it was after mutual agreement that we undertook this. When I spoke to Jadeja he was also very clear he also felt that he is at the fag end of his career in white ball. So he also felt that he can have a break he added. Fast bowler Mohammed Shami will join Lucknow Super Giants after being traded from Sunrisers Hyderabad. He will play for LSG at his current fee of Rs 10 crore. Arjun Tendulkar son of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar will also wear the LSG jersey after moving from Mumbai Indians for his existing fee of Rs 30 lakh. All-rounder Nitish Rana will play for Delhi Capitals following a trade from Rajasthan Royals at his current fee of Rs 4.2 crore. Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru released six players including Liam Livingstone and Lungi Ngidi. However in a surprising move they decided to keep pacer Yash Dayal who is currently facing sexual abuse allegations. Remaining budgets for IPL 2026 teams - Chennai Super Kings: Rs 43.40 crore Mumbai Indians: Rs 2.75 crore Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rs 16.40 crore Kolkata Knight Riders: Rs 64.30 crore Sunrisers Hyderabad: Rs 25.50 crore Gujarat Titans: Rs 12.90 crore Rajasthan Royals: Rs 16.05 crore Delhi Capitals: Rs 21.80 crore Lucknow Super Giants: Rs 22.95 crore Punjab Kings: Rs 11.50 crore