The ten franchises acquired a total of 29 overseas players for a total of INR 128.05 crore on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi in the IPL 2026 auction, while the 48 Indians made them spend INR 87.40 crore. Remarkably, most of that 87.40 crore went to uncapped Indians. Only nine capped Indian players were brought in by the franchises, including six at their base price. The base price of five of those was only INR 75 lakh, with Akash Deep priced at INR 1 crore. 

Two things have been on the franchises' minds: age and local experience.  It looked like Indian players who are likely to last were the target. Performers at the domestic level, either in the state-run leagues or BCCI events, were richly rewarded.  A total of 32 players bought by franchises were under 25 on auction day. Of them, 29 were Indians. Meanwhile, 20 players aged 30 or higher fetched bids on Tuesday, and only three of them were Indians - Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi and Praveen Dubey. 

Only three Indians aged 26 or more earned at least twice their base price - Rahul Chahar and Iyer, the capped Indians, and the uncapped Auqib Nabi.  Tripathi was the oldest Indian bought and, overall, was only behind David Miller, the only player aged 35 or more. Both got sold at their base prices, much like many of the other senior pros.  Thirteen of the 20 players who were aged 30 or higher got sold at their base price, and only six went beyond twice their base price.

Seventeen of those 20 were overseas players, with 11 picked at their base price.  The biggest profit-maker among them was Liam Livingstone, bought for INR 13 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), 6.5 times his base price, but in the accelerated auction after going unsold in the first round.  Green earns big again, Pathirana sets Sri Lankan record  Cameron Green's debut at the IPL auction in 2023 nearly made him the most expensive player in league history, as he fetched INR 17.5 crore from Mumbai Indians (MI), finishing only behind Sam Curran's INR 18.25 crore in the same auction. 

On Tuesday, again, his presence broke records, this time fetching INR 25.20 crore, making him the league's most expensive overseas player and the third-most-expensive ever. It was his former team, MI, that bid for him first before three other teams entered the fray. Most expensive buys at the IPL auctions ESPNcricinfo Ltd  He was eventually sold to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), with the paddle raised 113 times by the four teams to get to that point.

Green, however, will get only INR 18 crore, while the rest goes to players' welfare under the new auction rules.  Green's actual auction price would translate to US$2.98 million (approx.), which was US$2.1 million (approx.) back in 2023. He is only the third player to be bought for US$2-million plus twice in IPL auctions, after Yuvraj Singh and Pat Cummins. However, no player before him has been paid 17 crore or more in INR twice. The closest is Cummins, who earned INR15-crore plus twice - INR 20.5 by SRH and INR 15.5 by KKR. 

Matheesha Pathirana was the second-most-expensive player on Tuesday, earning an INR 18 crore bid from KKR, which is by far the highest for a player from Sri Lanka.  There has been only one previous instance of a Sri Lanka cricketer fetching roughly half what Pathirana got: Wanindu Hasaranga, who was bought for INR 10.75 crore by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in 2022. In fact, the price paid for Pathirana was the joint-second-highest ever for a player registered as a specialist bowler, behind only Mitchell Starc's INR 24.75, also by KKR in 2024.  

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)