At least seven players will be released by Punjab Kings (PBKS) before to the IPL 2026 auction, with Glenn Maxwell being the most well-known. Before suffering a fractured finger halfway through the 2025 Indian Premier League season, Maxwell participated in seven games. In six innings, he amassed just 48 runs, including single-figure totals in his last four games (the runners-up’s best was 30), and he claimed four wickets.
Fellow Australian Mitchell Owen, who gained notoriety for his exploits with the BBL champion Hobart Hurricanes the previous season, took his position. In BBL 13, he scored the most runs with 452 runs at a strike rate of 203.60, including two hundreds. But he had a terrible IPL start, making just one appearance and scoring a two-ball duck. Owen was acquired for his base price of INR 3 crore, but PBKS plans to keep him.
Maxwell, who announced his retirement from ODIs in June, was purchased by PBKS for INR 4.2 crore in the 2025 auction.
His fourth IPL squad, PBKS, was his third home after he played for them in 2021 and from 2014 to 2017. With a top of 62 not out against South Africa in Cairns, Maxwell has amassed 171 runs at a strike rate of 169.30 in T20Is so far this year.
Additionally, Aaron Hardie, Kyle Jamieson, Kuldeep Sen, Praveen Dubey, and Vishnu Vinod are scheduled to be released by PBKS. In the four games he played, Jamieson, who had replaced the ailing Lockie Ferguson, took five wickets. In the IPL 2025, Dubey only played one game for PBKS, while neither Hardie nor Sen nor Vinod appeared.
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