With the end of the 2025 Indian Premier League, the public is eagerly waiting for the next season and any related information about it. The IPL 2026 Trade Window features the transfer of players from one franchise to another. This trading process does not come under the upcoming auction.
The 2026 IPL Trade Window has already begun seven days after the 2025 IPL final, on 10 June 2025 at 9:00 AM IST. It’s been one month since the first trade window started. Rumours and guesses of player transfers are already circulating in the IPL-related news. Some of the rumoured transfers are of Sanju Samson, Glenn Maxwell and Rishabh Pant.
IPL 2026 Trade Window Explained
Like how football has a transfer market, IPL has the trade window. The difference is that football’s transfer market cannot exceed 12 weeks, whereas the overall IPL transfer window has about 9 months with its own rules before and after the auction. Yes, that is correct, the trading can take place before and after the IPL 2026 auction, resulting in two transfer windows.
IPL 2026 Trade Window Rules
The trade window has a few rules that are mandatory for all the IPL franchises and cannot be broken under any circumstances.
- All the trades have to be approved by the IPL Governing Council.
- The consent of the player is compulsory.
- The selling team takes the final decision.
- In case of swapping players, the price difference must be paid by the team that’s receiving the expensive player.
IPL 2026 Trade Window Dates
The IPL 2026 has two transfer periods: before the auction and after the auction. The pre-auction period began on 10 June 2025, 9:00 P.M. IST. This window is supposed to open seven days after the completion of the finals of the IPL 2025 and will remain active for seven days before the date of the auction, which has yet to be decided but is presumably going to be in November or December 2026.
The second transfer window, or the post-auction window, opens the next day after the auction. It shall remain open until one month before the start of IPL 2026. There appear to be several months to go until the next season, and the date or even the month is being discussed.
IPL 2026 Trade Window: How It Works
Trading a player during a transfer window can be accomplished in three ways: The first way is that two teams simply exchange a player without the exchange of money. The second way is where the team buying has to pay the base price of the player at the 2025 IPL auction. The third and final way requires a transfer fee to be paid on top of the base price; This transfer fee is neither disclosed to the public nor included in the auction budget of the buying team.
A buying franchise shall pay the fees applicable in the player’s previous league, which shall then be deducted from that franchise’s salary cap and added to the amount available to the selling franchise. The negotiation over the salary may take place only after the approval of the BCCI, and, in the event of an increase or decrease in a player’s salary, the consent of the BCCI is mandatory.
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Such trades are allowed for overseas players only if the No-Objection Certificate (NOC) is issued by the respective cricket board of that country. A medical check-up for fitness shall be organised by the buying franchise.
During transfer windows, there are no limits on trades, with the rule allowing a player to be traded only once during these periods. Of course, both teams have to ensure that everything they do is in compliance with rules on salary caps and squad sizes. For the pro-auction trade, only the retained players can be transferred. No teams can trade or exchange the players bought during the auction.