IPL 2026 Ranking: Which Team Has The Best Squad?

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 is all set to start from March 28, 2026, and the opening match of the tournament will be played between the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Many teams have made excellent purchases in the IPL 2026 mini-auction, and they have made a quality squad for the upcoming season. Teams like Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are likely to dominate in the IPL 2026, and they are among the top contenders to win the title this year.

However, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will be looking to defend their title and win their second trophy, but it’s going to be quite tough this time. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is one of the most successful teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they have won five titles, but last season was disappointing for them; therefore, they will be looking to bounce back strongly in IPL 2026.​

Below is the IPL 2206 Rankings of the teams based on the quality of players or match winners in their squad. Many teams are yet to check many boxes to make a perfect Playing XI for the IPL 2026, while some teams vene have back-up options for the key roles in the Playing XI.

​Mumbai Indians (MI)

​Mumbai Indians (MI) have won five IPL titles, but they haven’t won a single trophy in the past few seasons. However, MI played exceptional cricket in the last edition, and now, they are looking quite dangerous, and chances are quite high that they will lift their sixth title by winning the IPL 2026.

​The Batting department is the key strength of the Mumbai Indians, and they have one of the best batting units of the tournament. From players like Rohit Sharma to Suryakumar Yadav, they have experienced and consistent players who can single-handedly win matches for them.

Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Hardik Pandya, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, AM Ghazanfar, Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford, Mayank Markande, Quinton de Kock, Danish Malewar, Mohammad Izhar, Atharva Ankolekar, Mayank Rawat

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)

After winning the IPL 2025, the energy in the RCB camp is on another level, and they will be looking to replicate the same performance in the IPL 2026. After the Mumbai Indians, the RCB have the best batting unit; however, their bowling department is quite weak or inexperienced, especially after Josh Hazlewood is ruled out of the IPL 2026.

The duo of Virat Kohli and Phil Salt has troubled many teams in the last season, and they are expected to do the same in this season. However, Jacob Bethell is also the backup option who has played exceptional cricket in recent times.

Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, Suyash Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Duffy, Satvik Deswal, Mangesh Yadav, Jordan Cox, Vicky Ostwal, Kanishk Chouhan, Vihaan Malhotra

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Kolkata Knight Riders did a superb job in the IPL 2026 mini-auction and made a perfect squad for the upcoming season. KKR have one of the best all-rounders in their squad, and the top-order is also looking quite solid, especially with the addition of Finn Allen and Tim Seifert.

But again, KKR’s pace unit is quite inexperienced, which the team management has to look at seriously, otherwise teams like MI and RCB are going to exploit this.  

Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Manish Pandey, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Cameron Green, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman, Tejasvi Singh, Rachin Ravindra, Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Akash Deep, Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Kartik Tyagi

Other teams are also good, but they still have to check all boxes; however, SRH and CSK also have good squads, but their performance in the last season was not up to the mark. But, the chances are high that they will bounce back, but they need to prove as other teams are doing it consistently.

Punjab Kings (PBKS) have quite a young but strong squad; however, teams are likely to come up with strategies this time, and they might get exposed as lots of boxes are yet to be filled in their squad as well.  

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Smaran Ravichandran, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari, Liam Livingstone, Jack Edwards, Salil Arora, Shivam Mavi, Krains Fuletra, Praful Hinge, Amit Kumar, Onkar Tarmale, Sakib Hussain, Shivang Kumar

Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Choudhary, Sanju Samson, Akeal Hosein, Prashant Veer, Kartik Sharma, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Zak Foulkes.

Punjab Kings (PBKS)

Shreyas Iyer, Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Pyla Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Musheer Khan, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Arshdeep Singh, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Marco Jansen, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Ben Dwarshuis, Cooper Connolly, Pravin Dubey, Vishal Nishad

Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravindra Jadeja, Donovan Ferreira, Sam Curran, Ravi Bishnoi, Ravi Singh, Sushant Mishra, Brijesh Sharma, Aman Rao Perala, Vignesh Puthur, Yash Raj Punja, Kuldeep Sen, Adam Milne

Delhi Capitals (DC)

Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Nitish Rana, Auqib Dar, Pathum Nissanka, Kyle Jamieson, Lungisani Ngidi, Ben Duckett, David Miller, Prithvi Shaw, Sahil Parakh

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)

Rishabh Pant, Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Breetzke, Nicholas Pooran, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Digvesh Rathi, M. Siddharth, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Mohammed Shami, Naman Tiwari, Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Inglis, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Anrich Nortje, Mukul Choudhary.

Gujarat Titans (GT)

Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Jos Buttler, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Nishant Sindhu, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Manav Suthar, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Brar, Sai Kishore, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Glenn Phillips, Jason Holder, Ashok Sharma, Tom Banton, Prithviraj Yarra, Luke Wood.

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