The 10 teams spent a combined Rs 128.05 crore on 29 overseas players, compared to Rs 87.40 crore on 48 Indian recruits. Notably, only nine capped Indian players were bought, six of them at base price.
Photo: IANS
The IPL 2026 auction in Abu Dhabi underlined a clear shift in franchise thinking, with teams prioritising youth, longevity and domestic experience over established reputations. Across the board, franchises invested heavily in Indian talent, particularly uncapped players, while overseas spending was driven by a handful of headline names.
The 10 teams spent a combined Rs 128.05 crore on 29 overseas players, compared to Rs 87.40 crore on 48 Indian recruits. Notably, only nine capped Indian players were bought, six of them at base price. The bulk of Indian spending went towards uncapped cricketers, reflecting a strong preference for players emerging from domestic competitions and age-group pathways.
Advertisement
Age was a defining factor. Of the 32 players bought, who were under-25 on auction day, 29 were Indians. In contrast, only three Indians aged 30 or above attracted bids. Among them are Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi and Praveen Dubey while senior overseas players were largely picked up at base price. The pattern was unmistakable, franchises focussed on building squads for a long term basis.
Advertisement
No franchise embodied this approach more dramatically than Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Armed with the biggest purse at the auction, the three-time IPL champions KKR dominated proceedings and reshaped their squad aggressively. Their headline acquisition was Cameron Green for Rs 25.20 crore, making him the most expensive overseas player in IPL history and the third-most-expensive overall.
While Green will take home Rs 18 crore under the new auction cap rules, the bid itself underlined KKR’s intent to secure a marquee, multi-skill player around whom their future plans can revolve.
KKR doubled down on impact by snapping up Matheesha Pathirana for Rs 18 crore, the highest-ever price paid for a Sri Lankan player and the joint-second-highest for a specialist bowler in IPL history. The two buys alone signalled KKR’s willingness to spend big on elite overseas talent capable of delivering immediately while still fitting into a long-term core.
In contrast, five-time champions Mumbai Indians entered the auction with the smallest purse of any team in more than a decade, limiting their activity, while Chennai Super Kings surprised many by pivoting sharply towards youth. CSK spent heavily on uncapped Indians Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma, paying Rs 14.2 crore each for the pair, a rare departure from their traditionally conservative auction strategy. Both players are yet to make their IPL debuts, highlighting the premium franchises placed on perceived upside.
Delhi Capitals (DC) also put in Rs 8.4 crore for another first-timer, Auqib Nabi, on Tuesday. Punjab Kings, who had only four slots to fill going into the auction, the fewest of the ten sides, bid for only six players and got their four picks, while Gujarat Titans were efficient and precise, completing their business within a tight purse and limited slots.
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who went as high as Rs 23.50 crore for Venkatesh Iyer last year, brought him in for less than a third of that price (Rs 7 crore) on Tuesday, besides bolstering their squad with New Zealand’s Jacob Duffy as cover for Josh Hazlewood, while Mangesh Yadav, a left-arm quick, provides like-for-like back-up for Yash Dayal.
Despite having the third-biggest available purse, Sunrisers Hyderabad was careful with their choices. They splurged Rs 13 crore for acquiring Liam Livingstone and added a new twist with the addition of the left-arm wrist spinner Krains Fuletra.
Lucknow Super Giants, who released David Miller, ended up spending Rs 8.6 crore on Josh Inglis, who will be unavailable for much of the 2026 season, and Rs 2.6 crore on the uncapped Mukul Choudhary. They made a smart purchase by roping in Anrich Nortje at his base price of Rs 2 crore.
Squads:
Lucknow Super Giants: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Aiden Markram, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran, Josh Inglis, Mukul Choudhary, Arshin Kulkarni, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Digvesh Rathi, M Siddharth, Akash Singh, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Anrich Nortje, Prince Yadav, Arjun Tendulkar, Mayank Yadav, Naman Tiwari.
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Karun Nair, Nitish Rana, Pathum Nissanka, Ashutosh Sharma, David Miller, Sameer Rizvi, Sahil Parakh, KL Rahul, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Ben Duckett, Axar Patel, Vipraj Nigam, Kyle Jamieson, Auqib Nabi, Madhav Tiwari, T Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan, Lungi Ngidi, Dushmantha Chameera
Punjab Kings: Harnoor Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Shreyas Iyer, Prabhsimran Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Azmatullah Omarzai, Ben Dwarshuis, Cooper Connolly, Harpreet Brar, Marco Jansen, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Owen, Musheer Khan, Shashank Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Vishal Nishad, Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur
Rajasthan Royals: Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aman Rao, Dhruv Jurel, Ravi Singh, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Raj Punja, Vignesh Puthur, Jofra Archer, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Sushant Mishra, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen, Brijesh Sharma.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Rovman Powell, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Dahiya, Tim Seifert, Anukul Roy, Cameron Green, Daksh Kamra, Ramandeep Singh, Rachin Ravindra, Sarthak Ranjan, Sunil Narine, Prashant Solanki, Varun Chakravarthy, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Kartik Tyagi, Matheesha Pathirana, Mustafizur Rahman, Umran Malik, Vaibhav Arora
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Tom Banton, Glenn Phillips, Shahrukh Khan, Jos Buttler, Anuj Rawat, Kumar Kushagra, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar, Manav Suthar, Rahul Tewatia, Nishant Sindhu, Jayant Yadav, Arshad Khan, Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Luke Wood, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Sharma, Prithvi Raj Yarra
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Danish Malewar, Robin Minz, Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock, Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford, Corbin Bosch, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell Santner, Naman Dhir, Raj Bawa, Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Atharva Ankolekar, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma, Ashwani Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Mohammed Izhar
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Aniket Verma, R Smaran, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Salil Arora, Liam Livingstone, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Harsh Dubey, Jack Edwards, Shivang Kumar, Krains Fuletra, Zeeshan Ansari, Amit Kumar, Eshan Malinga, Jaydev Unadkat, Shivam Mavi, Onkar Tarmale, Sakib Hussain, Praful Hinge
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell, Venkatesh Iyer, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Romario Shepherd, Satwik Deswal, Kanish Chouhan, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal, Suyash Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Rasikh Salam, Mangesh Yadav, Yash Dayal, Jacob Duffy, Nuwan Thushara, Abhinandan Singh
Chennai Super KIngs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Short, Sanju Samson, MS Dhoni, Urvil Patel, Kartik Sharma, Shivam Dube, Zak Foulkes, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Jamie Overton, Akeal Hosein, Aman Khan, Prashant Veer, Noor Ahmad, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Nathan Ellis, Matt Henry, Gurjapneet Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary
Advertisement
