IPL Auction 2026: Will teams be allowed to use Right To Match cards? | Cricket News

NEW DELHI: As the countdown begins for the IPL 2026 mini auction, one question continues to dominate discussions among fans and franchises alike: will teams be allowed to use the Right To Match (RTM) card in Abu Dhabi?Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The auction for the 19th season of the Indian Premier League is scheduled for Tuesday, December 16, in Abu Dhabi, marking the third consecutive year the event is being staged outside India.

Following last year’s high-profile two-day mega auction in Jeddah, the IPL will now return to a mini auction format, where teams fine-tune their squads rather than rebuild from scratch.Franchises had until November 15 to finalise and announce their retained players. While some teams, including Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders, have chosen to significantly revamp their squads—freeing up large portions of their purse—others such as Mumbai Indians have largely backed continuity and are expected to make only selective additions.

Will franchises be allowed to use ‘Right To Match’ cards?

Despite the anticipation, the IPL Governing Council has made it clear that the RTM card will not be in play at this auction. The Right To Match option is reserved exclusively for mega auctions, where teams are allowed to retain only a limited number of players, ensuring a competitive reset across the league.First introduced ahead of the IPL 2014 mega auction, the RTM rule allowed franchises to reclaim players they had released by matching the highest bid at the auction table. The provision remained in place for the 2018 mega auction but was eventually scrapped before the 2022 season. During the previous mega auction cycle, teams were permitted to retain up to six players, either directly or via RTM cards, which led to varying strategies across franchises.In contrast, mini auctions allow teams to retain as many players as they wish beforehand, making the RTM mechanism unnecessary. As a result, franchises cannot use RTM cards to buy back released players in Abu Dhabi.For IPL 2026, team strategies will instead revolve around purse management, targeted acquisitions, and capitalising on gaps in rival squads—without the safety net of the RTM card influencing bidding dynamics.

IPL 2026 auction purse and spots to fill