Cricket News: Most expensive players in IPL history | List of the top 5 most expensive players in IPL history

Mini-auctions in the Indian Premier League (IPL) more often than end up springing up many a surprise. The same has been the case this time around, with the duo of Sam Curran and Cameron Green, who had the entire spotlight ahead on them all this while, ending up as two of the most expensive players in the history of the cash-rich league.

Without further ado, let us take a look at five cricketers who attracted the highest bids in the competition.

Top 5 most expensive players in IPL history

Sam Curran: 18.5 cr

The English all-rounder became the costliest pick in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction as Punjab Kings (PBKS) picked him for Rs 18.50 crore (approx. US$2.22m) in Kochi on December 23, 2022. The 24-year-old displayed incredible heroics in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup as he propelled England to the title with a ‘Man of the Tournament’ performance.

Curran has developed tremendously with respect to his death bowling and can play a good hand with the bat whenever required. Punjab offloaded quite a few of their expensive stars like Mayank Agarwal and Odean Smith in this auction and certainly had more money in the bank than others to acquire the services of the prodigious all-rounder.

Cameron Green: 17.25cr

The 6’5” tall Australian star was the talk of the town ahead of the player auction as he enthralled the Indian audience with some incredible power-hitting when the Australian team toured India for a three-match T20I series in September 2022.

In addition to that, he can bowl some good pace at all stages of the game. The 23-year-old has bundles of potential and has a style of play incredibly well-suited to the shortest format of the game. Mumbai Indians were certainly eyeing him ahead of the player auction and snapped him for a humungous sum of Rs 17.25 crore (approx. $2.07m).

Ben Stokes: 16.25cr

Ben Stokes might have given the IPL a miss last year but he returned to the T20 format with England and helped them lift the World Cup with another match-winning performance in the finale of a mega tournament.

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) value players who know what it takes to win big competitions and Stokes is right up there amongst the most prominent clutch players in world cricket. The MS Dhoni-led franchise secured Stokes’ services for a fairly high sum of Rs 16.25 crore (approx. US$1.95m) ahead of the 2023 season of the IPL.

Chris Morris: 16.25cr

The dynamics of a mini-auction are such that players often tend to go for big sums as teams often have a lot of amount of with little gaps to plug. Back in 2021, Rajasthan Royals (RR) relied on Morris’ impressive outings for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the preceding campaign to shell out Rs 16.25 crore (approx. US$1.95m) for the South African all-rounder.

That record was finally broken by Curran and then Green in the ongoing auction, and Stokes’ sum this year equaled the amount that RR paid for Morris back in the day.

Nicholas Pooran: 16cr

Nicholas Pooran isn’t undergoing the best phase of his career presently. West Indies crashed out of the T20 World Cup in the first round under his leadership. He stepped down from captaincy as the southpaw has been battling a run of poor form as well – having scored just 25 runs in three matches in the World Cup.

However, the 27-year-old continues to retain the faith of franchises in the IPL, as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on-boarded him for Rs 16 crore (approx. $1.92m) in the 2023 auction. Pooran averaged 38.25 with a strike rate of 144.34 for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) last year. Moreover, Lucknow skipper KL Rahul seems to have a fondness for Pooran, with the two of them having worked together previously for PBKS as well.  

Note: Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) had picked Yuvraj Singh for a sum of Rs 16 crore too back in IPL 2015.