IPL 2026 players’ auction is currently underway in Abu Dhabi, with the 10 teams needing to fill up 77 slots with a cumulative purse of Rs 237.55 crore. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have the highest purse of 64.30 crore.
As many as 369 players will go under the hammer.
KKR splurged a record-breaking Rs 25.20 crore to sign top Australian all-rounder Cameron Green even as Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan went unsold.
Also read: Final list for IPL 2026 auction announced
Green surpassed compatriot Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore) to become the most expensive overseas buy at an IPL auction. He is the third-costliest player in IPL history after Rishabh Pant (Rs 27 crore) and Shreyas Iyer (Rs 26.75 crore).
This was after Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings were involved in an intense bidding war for him before the latter emerged winner.
Though Green’s bid crossed Rs 25 crore, his salary for the season would still be Rs 18 crore (USD 1.9 million).
The bid amount and players’ salary would be mutually exclusive, with the former being deducted from the team’s annual player purse.
Also read: Full list of players retained for IPL 2026
The reason is IPL’s “maximum-fee” rule, which states that a foreign player’s maximum fee at a mini auction will be the lower value between the highest retention slab (Rs 18 crore) and the highest price at the previous mega auction (Rs 27 crore for Pant in 2025).
Green, who previously turned up for Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has so far played 29 matches in the IPL to aggregate 707 runs and take 16 wickets.
Shaw, however, went unsold despite his fine run of form in the domestic circuit lately, and so was the case with Sarfaraz, who smashed a 22-ball 73 in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match for Mumbai on Tuesday.
Follow live updates of IPL 2026 auction here
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