Former India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has selected his top four teams for IPL 2026, following the conclusion of the auction on December 16 (via the MI Instagram handle). The legendary cricketer went with the Mumbai Indians (MI) as his first choice.MI retained most of its core before the auction and made a few shrewd moves via trade and at the auction. After trading for stars, Shardul Thakur and Sherfane Rutherford, the five-time champions also signed one of their former stars, Quinton de Kock, for just ₹1 crore at the auction.MI qualified for the playoffs last season but were eliminated in Qualifier 2 by the Punjab Kings (PBKS).For his second pick, Ashwin went with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). However, he placed a caveat stating the importance of Josh Hazlewood's fitness and Yash Dayal's availability for the franchise to make it three consecutive playoff appearances.RCB retained most of the players from their championship-winning squad but added star batting all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer in the auction.Ashwin also picked last season's runners-up, Punjab Kings (PBKS), as one of his playoff teams for IPL 2026. Like RCB, PBKS retained most of their core players and made notable additions in the form of Ben Dwarshuis and Cooper Connolly in the auction.Finally, the legendary spinner picked his former franchise, the Rajasthan Royals (RR), to finish in the top four, calling them a 'mighty good side'. After trading for all-rounders, Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran, in a swap with Sanju Samson, RR added former No. 1-ranked T20I spinner, Ravi Bishnoi, in the auction.The side endured a dismal 2025 season, finishing second from bottom on the points table."How the hell did you guys pull that off?" - R Ashwin on one of MI's marquee signings in the IPL 2026 auctionRavichandran Ashwin expressed surprise at MI pulling off the signing of Quinton de Kock for just ₹1 crore at the IPL 2026 auction. The South African wicketkeeper played for the franchise from 2019 to 2021, when they won back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020.Talking about the De Kock signing, Ashwin said (via MI Instagram handle):"How the hell did you guys pull that off? You have Ryan Rickelton, you have Will Jacks, and then you are going ahead and saying, 'You know what, we want Ryan Rickelton and Quinton de Kock literally not competing for South African spots but MI spots also'. And you know what Quinton has done for you in the past."De Kock enjoyed his two best IPL seasons in 2019 and 2020 with MI, scoring over 500 runs in both of their title-winning campaigns.