Top 5 Most Expensive players in IPL Auction history

The auction of the Tata Indian Premier League 2023 season is just 3 days away and we are all set for a thriller auction. Many teams need to build their squads whereas some just need to find backups. Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Kolkata Knight Riders are some teams who will remain busy throughout the auction whereas some like Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals are the teams who will be just sitting quietly and smiling in the auction room making 1-2 occasional bids to either buy a player or spoil other team’s party. Today, we will look at top-5 most expensive players ever in the Indian Premier League history.

1. Chris Morris (All-rounder, South Africa)
In the 2021 season, Rajasthan Royals bought Chris Morris for a whopping INR 16.25 crores making him the most expensive buy in the IPL Auction history. He was bought by the Rajasthan Royals franchise with a lot of hopes but was not able to do justice to the amount he was getting. He played only 11 matches in the 2021 season and took 15 wickets with an economy of 9.17 rpo which was not really expected from him. He didn’t do anything with the bat also as he scored just 67 runs in 11 matches with a strike rate of 136.73. he was expected to perform a lot better by the RR franchise. After this season, he retired from the IPL and took out his name from the 2022 mega-auction list.

2. Yuvraj Singh (Batter, India)
The flamboyant left-handed Indian batter was bought by Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in the 2015 season for a sum of INR 16 crores making him the most expensive Indian player in Tata IPL Auction history. In the previous season, he was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 14 crores but was released due to lack of performance. When playing for Delhi, he had a very poor season scoring just 248 runs in 14 matches with a strike rate of a mere 118.09. He disappointed the whole Delhi franchise with his non-performance in the 2015 season and was released by them before the next season of the Indian Premier League.

3. Pat Cummins (Bowler, Australia)
Kolkata Knight Riders bought the services of Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins ahead of the 2020 IPL season for INR 15.5 crores, making him the most expensive player in the 2020 IPL Auction. He didn’t have a very good season as he took just 12 wickets in 14 games but bowled with an economy of 7.86 rpo throughout the season. He made them win one particular match where he scored 53* runs in about 20 odd balls. He was not able to perform much but had a huge impact on their team and was very important to the leadership group. He stayed with the KKR franchise for two more seasons but didn’t play many matches as he made himself unavailable before getting released by the franchise (due to unavailability) ahead of the 2023 season.

4. Ishan Kishan (Batter, India)
In the 2022 Tata IPL mega auction, Ishan Kishan was bought by the Mumbai Indians franchise for INR 15.25 crores making him the second-most expensive Indian player in Tata IPL auction history after Yuvraj Singh. He was bought by Mumbai Indians for opening the innings with Rohit Sharma, their captain and Kishan was also the wicketkeeper for them. He had a decent season as far as the number of runs he scored is concerned but in terms of impact, his performance was not up to the mark. He scored 418 runs in 14 matches with an average of 32.15 but his strike rate of 120.11 was just not enough. His role was to attack from the top in the power play and put Mumbai’s innings into a good position but he failed more often than not. He has still been retained by the MI franchise and would look forward to altering his mistakes of the previous season.

5. Kyle Jamieson (Bowler, New Zealand)
This New Zealand speedster was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the 2021 auction to fulfill their need of getting an express pace bowler who can also bat a bit at the end. They acquired his services for INR 15 crores and expected him to be the x-factor player for them. He played only 9 matches for them that season due to national commitments but didn’t have a very huge impact on the team’s performance. He took just 9 wickets in the season and bowled with an economy of 9.61 rpo. He was then released by the RCB franchise before the 2022 IPL mega auction but he opted out of the auction due to personal reasons.