Until the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, the most expensive buys at the auction used to be foreign all-rounders. Ben Stokes, Cameron Green, Sam Curran, and Chris Morris broke the bank. They were the rarest commodity in cricket: all-rounders. Every franchise went crazy after them.
The foreign all-rounder pattern
A particular pattern that emerged was that teams paid big in mini auctions. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) realised this as well and banned players from skipping the mega auction so that they don’t trick the system by making themselves available only when the chance of receiving bigger bids was higher.
If things didn’t go right post the mega auction, teams went fishing and ended up paying huge sums to players with the ‘x’ factor. Ravichandran Ashwin predicts that a similar thing will happen in the IPL 2026 auction as well.
“This will be a mini auction where you’ll find it tough to get Indian players. Maybe only new players will come. The costly picks will be overseas players. A franchise releasing a big Indian player is a very risky formula. So many Australian players will come in the auction,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel ‘Ash ki Baat’.
Cameron Green, set to go big in the IPL 2026 auction?
Both Green and Stokes were injured during the mega auction and will be available for the IPL 2026 auction. Both have held the most expensive player title before, and for Green in particular, his T20 batting seems to have gone up a notch. We still don’t know whether Stokes will put his name in the auction, but if he does, he’ll surely have takers.
“You’ve got Mitchell Owen, who was a replacement player for three games for Punjab Kings. Then you’ve got someone like Cameron Green coming into the auction. They’ll go at a big price because they are foreign all-rounders. The mini-auction will be a game of Rs 25-30 crore for all teams,” Ashwin added.
Most expensive buys in IPL auction history
| Player | Team | Price | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rishabh Pant | LSG | Rs. 27 Crore | 2025 |
| Shreyas Iyer | PBKS | Rs. 26.75 Crore | 2025 |
| Mitchell Starc | KKR | Rs 24.75 Crore | 2024 |
| Pat Cummins | SRH | Rs 20.50 Crore | 2024 |
| Sam Curran | PBKS | Rs 18.50 Crore | 2023 |
| Cameron Green | MI | Rs 17.50 Crore | 2023 |
| Ben Stokes | CSK | Rs 16.25 Crore | 2023 |
| Chris Morris | RR | Rs 16.25 Crore | 2021 |
| Yuvraj Singh | DD | Rs 16 Crore | 2015 |
| Nicholas Pooran | LSG | Rs 16 Crore | 2023 |
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