All IPL franchises have officially announced their retentions ahead of the upcoming mini auction. It will happen in Abu Dhabi on December 16. Most of the franchises retained their core players while parting ways with some of them, hoping to rebuild their teams.Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have retained just 12 players and will enter the auction with the highest purse of ₹64.30 crores. Veteran all-rounder Andre Russell was among the players released by them. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have the second biggest purse of ₹43.40 crores, having retained 16 players.Five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) will go into the auction with the least purse of ₹2.75 crores. They were active during the trade window, bringing in Shardul Thakur and Sherfane Rutherford to assemble a balanced side.Quality all-rounders like Cameron Green, Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, and Venkatesh Iyer will most likely go under the hammer in the mini auction in December. Franchises might get involved in bidding wars to secure the services of some of these international players.Fans observed the retention lists of all the IPL franchises and shared their reactions by posting hilarious memes on social media. Here are some of the best memes:"Face of a man who is gonna get 30 cr from SRK in 30 days from today," a fan wrote."They will control the auction now" - Aakash Chopra on KKR entering IPL 2026 auction with a hefty ₹64.30 crore purseFormer Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra recently reviewed the retentions of IPL franchises ahead of the mini auction in a video on his YouTube channel. He opined that KKR might go all in for star all-rounder Cameron Green, considering they have the highest purse, and pointed out that Green could be an updated version of Andre Russell for the franchise."I think one must make an edit of Cameron Green in purple and publish it already. KKR need Cameron Green. They will control the IPL auction now because they have a lot of money. The bowling will not get impacted by Johnson, Nortje, or Russell going away. Maybe Green could come in as an upgraded version of Russell," Chopra said in his YouTube video. He also analyzed the Chennai Super Kings franchise in the same video and said:"They have a lot of money. I feel they get a batter in the top order with Sanju coming in, but they still need a good overseas batter in the middle. They need spinners as well. They would want one more overseas fast bowler as well. They are not in a bad space actually. They need some experience, they may be interested in Venkatesh Iyer as well, the possibility could be there."Do you think all the teams made the right decisions ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction? Let us know your views in the comments section.