3 Indians who played the 2022 T20 World Cup but are not part of IPL 2026 ft. Deepak Hooda

The IPL 2026 auction was held in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, December 16. The ten franchises combined to spend a total of ₹215.45 crore to purchase 77 players, with 29 of them being overseas cricketers. Australian all-rounder Cameron Green was the most expensive purchase at the auction. He was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping ₹25.20 crore.

Looking at the other big buys of the mini-auction, KKR spent ₹18 crore for Sri Lankan fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) sprung a bit of a surprise as they bought two uncapped Indian players - Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer - for ₹14.2 crore each. England's Liam Livingstone also got a big pay hike. He was purchased by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for ₹13 crore.

The IPL is an important tournament when it comes to picking players for a big international event like the T20 World Cup. In this feature, we look at three Indian players were part of the Team India's 2022 T20 World Cup squad, but won't feature in the IPL 2026 edition.

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#1 Deepak Hooda

Deepak Hooda was selected in India's 2022 T20 World Cup squad on the back of some impressive performances in a T20I series held in Ireland. He played only one match, which was against South Africa in Perth and was dismissed for a three-ball duck. The right-handed batter flashed at a wide delivery from Anrich Nortje and was caught behind.

Hooda has played 10 ODIs and 21 T20Is for the Men in Blue, scoring 153 and 368 runs respectively. The 30-year-old struck a hundred (104 off 57 balls) against Ireland in Dublin in June 2022, which is the only time he has crossed the 50-run mark in his international career.

Hooda had registered for the IPL 2026 auction at a base price of ₹75 lakh, but did not find any takers. He was released by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) ahead of the auction after managing only 31 runs in five innings in IPL 2025. The Rajasthan cricketer has a pretty mediocre record in the Indian T20 league. In 125 games, he has scored 1,496 runs at an average of 17.60 and a strike rate of 127.64, with eight half-centuries and a best of 64.

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#2 Ravichandran Ashwin

Team India's spin legend Ravichandran Ashwin played six matches for the Men in Blue in the 2022 T20 World Cup held in Australia. He claimed six wickets at an average of 25.83 and an economy rate of 8.15. Ashwin's best of 3-22 came against Zimbabwe in Melbourne. He also claimed 2-21 against Netherlands in Sydney, but went wicketless in the semifinal against England in Adelaide.

Ashwin won't feature in IPL 2026 as he has retired from the Indian T20 league. He announced the decision in August, having confirmed his international retirement in December 2024 during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. The Tamil Nadu legend represented CSK in IPL 2025 after being purchased for ₹9.75 crore. However, he only managed seven wickets in nine matches during the edition.

Ashwin ended his IPL career with 187 wickets in 221 matches at an average of 30.22 and an economy rate of 7.20. Only Yuzvendra Chahal (221), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (198), Sunil Narine (192) and Piyush Chawla (192) have taken more wickets than the off spinner in the T20 league.

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#3 Dinesh Karthik

Former wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik was picked for the 2022 T20 World Cup after he made an impressive international comeback. Karthik's unexpected return to the big stage was facilitated by some stunning performances as finisher for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL.

Karthik played four matches for the Men in Blue in the 2022 T20 World Cup, but failed to make much of an impact with the bat. In three innings, he scored 14 runs at a strike rate of 63.63. Karthik was stumped for one in the last over of the iconic chase against Pakistan in Melbourne.

Karthik retired from all forms of cricket in June 2024. He performed reasonably well for RCB in IPL 2024, scoring 326 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 187.35. In his overall IPL career, Karthik played 257 matches, scoring 4,842 runs at a strike rate of 135.36. Post retirement, he was appointed as the Bengaluru franchise's batting coach and mentor.

Edited by Renin Wilben Albert