IPL Auction: Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan's IPL exile ends; Cameron Green makes history, uncapped Indians rise and shine

IPL 2026 Auction LIVE: Lucknow Super Giants have been in the auction ecosystem for only a few seasons, but their “highest buy” trail already shows a franchise that keeps upgrading its ambition. In their first mega auction (2022), LSG announced their pace-first intent by paying ₹10 crore for Avesh Khan, a huge jump from his base price and one of the loudest statements of that auction room.

A year later, they went even bigger — this time on a finisher/keeper-batter — signing Nicholas Pooran for ₹16 crore at the 2023 mini auction.

Then came a quieter 2024 mini-auction, where their top cheque was ₹6.4 crore for Shivam Mavi, a more “depth and options” kind of spend.

But the real punchline arrived at the 2025 mega auction: LSG went nuclear and bought Rishabh Pant for ₹27 crore, the highest price ever paid for a player in an IPL auction.

IPL 2026 Auction LIVE: Lucknow Super Giants’ most defining early auction flex wasn’t a superstar batter — it was a fast bowler whose price went vertical. At the IPL 2022 mega auction, Avesh Khan walked in with a ₹20 lakh base and was eventually snapped up by LSG for ₹10 crore, instantly becoming the most expensive uncapped player in IPL auction history at the time.

And this wasn’t a gentle rise. Reports from the day describe a multi-team scrap: LSG and CSK set the bidding rolling, MI jumped in as the number crossed ₹4 crore, and by the time it reached the business end, SRH were still throwing punches — with the auction trail showing SRH’s top bid at ₹9.75 crore before LSG closed it out at ₹10 crore.

IPL 2026 Auction LIVE: Lucknow Super Giants have basically told their auction story through two headline cheques — both aimed at leadership. When the franchise entered the league ahead of IPL 2022, LSG didn’t wait for the auction room to build an identity: they used the pre-auction draft to lock in KL Rahul for ₹17 crore, instantly giving the new team a captain-figure and a top-order anchor in one move.

Fast-forward to the IPL 2025 mega auction, and LSG didn’t just tweak the plan — they blew the league’s ceiling off. They bought Rishabh Pant for ₹27 crore, the highest price ever paid for an IPL auction player, and turned “who’s the face of LSG?” into the biggest-number answer in the entire tournament.

In four seasons, that’s a pretty rare franchise fingerprint: two captaincy-sized bets, one to launch the project and one to reboot it at record scale.

IPL 2026 Auction LIVE: Lucknow Super Giants aren’t just a new franchise anymore — they’re the team that currently owns the IPL auction record. At the IPL 2025 mega auction, LSG landed Rishabh Pant for ₹27 crore, making him the most expensive player ever bought in an IPL auction.

What makes the moment even spicier is how the record fell in real time. ESPNcricinfo reported Pant’s ₹27 crore bid came shortly after Punjab Kings had already breached ₹25 crore to buy Shreyas Iyer for ₹26.75 crore — and then LSG simply went one step bigger to grab Pant.

So when you look at LSG’s auction identity, it’s pretty clear: they’re willing to pay top-of-the-market money for the face of the project — and in Pant, they didn’t just buy a player, they bought the league’s biggest price tag.

IPL 2026 Auction LIVE: Gujarat Titans have only been in the auction room since 2022, but their “highest buy” list already tells you what they prioritise: impact skills, not just filler depth. In their debut mega-auction year, GT’s biggest outlay was Lockie Ferguson for ₹10 crore — a straight signal that pace firepower was going to be a foundation, not a luxury.

A year later, their costliest buy was again a fast bowler — Shivam Mavi for ₹6 crore — as GT doubled down on Indian pace options rather than chasing flashy batting names.

Then came another swing at speed in 2024, when GT made Spencer Johnson their top purchase at ₹10 crore. And in the 2025 mega auction, the pattern finally flipped: GT’s biggest cheque went to a marquee wicketkeeper-batter, Jos Buttler, for ₹15.75 crore — the clearest sign yet of a team ready to spend big to lock down an elite top-order match-winner.

IPL Auction LIVE: Gujarat Titans quietly wrote a little bit of IPL history at the 2023 mini-auction in Kochi when they signed Josh Little for ₹4.4 crore, making him the first Irish player to land an IPL contract via the auction.

The price jump itself tells the story: Little walked in with a ₹50 lakh base, and the bidding climbed fast as Lucknow Super Giants pushed GT in a straight fight before the Titans finally closed it out.

For GT, it was a very on-brand purchase — not a “poster boy” signing, but a role-driven bet on a left-arm quick with momentum behind him.

Gujarat Titans are the rare IPL franchise whose auction story begins before their first auction room even opened. Ahead of the 2022 mega auction, GT locked in a ready-made spine via pre-auction draft picks: Hardik Pandya for ₹15 crore, Rashid Khan for ₹15 crore, and Shubman Gill for ₹8 crore. In one stroke, they had a captain, a match-winning bowler, and a long-term batting cornerstone — without having to fight a single bidding war for them.

Then, when the actual auction began, GT didn’t chase the biggest headline cheques in the room — but they did make two defining buys: Lockie Ferguson at ₹10 crore and Rahul Tewatia at ₹9 crore, giving the squad instant pace firepower and a finisher-type option to build around.

IPL Auction LIVE: If you line up Sunrisers Hyderabad’s priciest auction buys year by year, you can literally see how their “team identity” kept rebooting — from early punts on overseas all-rounders to splurges on leadership and game-changers.

It starts in 2013 with Thisara Perera (about ₹3.6 crore at the time, bought for $675,000), then jumps to David Warner ( ₹5.5 crore) in 2014 and Trent Boult ( ₹3.8 crore) in 2015. The first “proper statement” buy is Yuvraj Singh ( ₹7 crore) in 2016, followed by Rashid Khan ( ₹4 crore) in 2017 and the mega spike: Manish Pandey ( ₹11 crore) in 2018.

Then comes the lean phase — Bairstow ( ₹2.2 cr, 2019), Mitchell Marsh ( ₹2 cr, 2020), Kedar Jadhav ( ₹2 cr, 2021) — before SRH go big again: Nicholas Pooran ( ₹10.75 cr, 2022), Harry Brook ( ₹13.25 cr, 2023), the headline smash Pat Cummins ( ₹20.5 cr, 2024), and Ishan Kishan ( ₹11.25 cr, 2025).

IPL Auction LIVE: Sunrisers Hyderabad have had a reputation for being measured at the auction table — until the day they weren’t. At the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai, SRH detonated the room by landing Pat Cummins for ₹20.5 crore, a record cheque that instantly became the headline of the day.

The bidding wasn’t a polite stroll either. Reports from the auction say SRH had to win a straight shootout with Royal Challengers Bangalore before sealing the deal.

What made it feel so “SRH 2.0” wasn’t just the number — it was the intent. They weren’t buying a specialist; they were buying a leader, a fast-bowling match-winner, and a statement that SRH were ready to stop being the quiet operators and start shaping the room. And for a franchise that historically leaned into value plays, this was the clearest signal yet: SRH were willing to pay for the steering wheel.

IPL Auction LIVE: SRH’s most iconic auction tussle didn’t involve a World Cup hero or a proven IPL legend — it was a teenager with a wicked googly. At the IPL 2017 auction, 18-year-old Rashid Khan triggered a proper bidding scrap, with the Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad emerging as the main bidders before SRH finally closed it at ₹4 crore.

What made it feel peak-SRH was the logic behind the madness: they weren’t paying for “name value”, they were paying for mystery + matchup control — a leg-spinner who could bowl in the middle overs and still hold his nerve when batters went searching for sixes. The official auction recap even flagged how hard teams went for him before SRH won the fight.

IPL Auction LIVE: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s auction story began with a lovely contradiction. In their first-ever IPL auction (2013), SRH’s opening move was a ₹10.63 lakh base-price punt on a young Quinton de Kock.

But the same auction room also showed SRH weren’t here only to bargain-hunt. Their biggest cheque that day was Thisara Perera for ₹3.59 crore, a price that instantly made him one of the headline purchases of the auction.

IPL Auction LIVE: Rajasthan Royals’ “highest buy” timeline reads like a franchise personality test: mostly smart, occasionally sentimental, and once in a while—absolutely unhinged.

In the early years, RR’s biggest cheques were still serious money by IPL standards: Mohammad Kaif ( ₹2.7 cr in 2008) and Tyron Henderson ( ₹3.2 cr in 2009) set the tone, before a sharp dip with Damien Martyn ( ₹45.5 lakh in 2010) and then a spike again via Ross Taylor ( ₹4.6 cr in 2011).

Post-return, the curve turns dramatic. Steven Smith ( ₹4 cr, 2014) felt like a classic RR “build-around” buy, but Ben Stokes ( ₹12.5 cr, 2018) signalled a rare splurge era. Then came the Unadkat loop—big, then smaller, then bargain—before RR blew the roof off with Chris Morris ( ₹16.25 cr, 2021).

Since then, it’s been targeted big-ticket shopping: Prasidh Krishna ( ₹10 cr, 2022), Rovman Powell ( ₹7.4 cr, 2024) and Jofra Archer ( ₹12.5 cr, 2025).

IPL Auction LIVE: Rajasthan Royals have always fancied themselves as the league’s youth-lab — but they took it to a new extreme at the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah. RR signed Vaibhav Suryavanshi, then 13, for ₹1.10 crore, making him the youngest player ever to be bought at an IPL auction.

The bidding itself was a mini-drama: Suryavanshi came in at a ₹30 lakh base price, RR got into a quick duel with Delhi Capitals, and DC eventually pulled out as RR crossed the ₹1 crore mark.

It’s a very RR move because it isn’t just about “winning” a player — it’s about betting on development years before the market catches up. With RR’s own messaging framing it as part of their long-term backing of young talent, the Suryavanshi buy instantly became one of the most talked-about auction moments of the decade.

IPL Auction LIVE: Rajasthan Royals have had plenty of auction quirks, but few are as perfectly “IPL-market” as their Jaydev Unadkat loop. In 2018, RR went unusually big and made him the costliest Indian buy of that auction, paying ₹11.5 crore.

The next year, they hit reset — released him — and then did the most RR thing possible: bought him back again in 2019, this time for ₹8.4 crore.

And then came the cleanest punchline: in the 2020 auction (Kolkata), RR completed the hat-trick by bringing him back again, but for ₹3 crore.

Same bowler, same franchise, three consecutive auctions — and a price curve that basically shows how the auction room corrects hype over time. RR didn’t just buy a player; they unintentionally created a live case study in “release, recalibrate, re-buy.”

IPL Auction LIVE: The Rajasthan Royals’ auction identity basically begins with one name — Shane Warne. In the very first IPL auction (20 Feb 2008), Warne’s name came up early and, for a moment, the room oddly hesitated; later accounts note there wasn’t a bidding frenzy around him at the reserve, before RR snapped him up at his base price of $450,000.

Then came the true RR twist: Warne wasn’t just a signing — he became the project. Rajasthan made him their first captain (and widely reported as captain-coach in the inaugural season), putting leadership and tactical control in the same hands from Day 1.

What followed turned into instant folklore: a team that wasn’t tipped to dominate ended up lifting the first IPL title in 2008, with Warne as the face of the upset.

IPL Auction LIVE: Track Kolkata Knight Riders’ costliest buy in each auction, and you can almost see the franchise evolving in phases. In the early years, they were a fast-bowling project: Ishant Sharma ( ₹3.8 crore in 2008) and Mashrafe Mortaza ( ₹2.9 crore in 2009) topped their sheets, followed by Shane Bond ( ₹4.8 crore in 2010). The real reset came in 2011, when KKR smashed the 10-crore barrier for Gautam Gambhir at ₹11.04 crore, an era-defining move that produced two titles.

The next stretch is a mix of smart picks and quirky punts – Brendon McCullum ( ₹4.4 crore in 2012), Jacques Kallis ( ₹5.5 crore in 2014) and the famous mystery bid on K.C. Cariappa ( ₹2.4 crore in 2015). From 2018 onwards, the numbers have exploded. Chris Lynn ( ₹9.6 crore) leads into Pat Cummins at ₹15.5 crore in 2020, before KKR go all-in again on Shreyas Iyer ( ₹12.25 crore in 2022). Then comes the nuclear phase: Mitchell Starc’s record-shattering ₹24.75 crore deal in 2024, followed by Venkatesh Iyer at ₹23.75 crore in 2025. Two of the biggest cheques in IPL history now sit on KKR’s auction ledger.

IPL Auction LIVE: Kolkata Knight Riders’ two greatest auction stories both came from the West Indies – and both started as calculated gambles. In 2012, KKR spent around ₹3.5 crore (US$700,000) on a little-known mystery spinner named Sunil Narine, making him one of their biggest buys of that auction. The return was instant and spectacular: Narine took 24 wickets in 15 matches at an economy of 5.47, won Player of the Tournament, and powered KKR to their first IPL title.

Two years later, in 2014, they went the other way: a low-risk punt on an explosive but underused all-rounder. Andre Russell was signed for just ₹60 lakh, essentially a squad-player price. Within a year, he turned that into one of the best bargains in IPL history – in 2015, he smashed 326 runs at a strike rate near 192 and took 14 wickets, earning Player of the Tournament honours. Since then, both Narine and Russell have been upgraded to multi-crore retentions, but their stories began as classic KKR auction bets that wildly over-delivered.

IPL Auction LIVE: Kolkata Knight Riders’ auction history isn’t just hits – it’s also dotted with cheques that never really paid off. In the inaugural auction in 2008, KKR spent around ₹50 lakh (US$125,000) on Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu. Across three matches in two seasons, he scored just 31 runs, quickly squeezed out by Brendon McCullum and others. A year later, they made Mashrafe Mortaza their marquee pace signing for roughly ₹2.9 crore. He played one match, went wicketless, and his entire IPL story shrank to that nightmare last over in Hyderabad when he failed to defend 21 runs, conceding 22 to Rohit Sharma.

The pattern has popped up in the modern era, too. In 2019, KKR paid ₹5 crore for Carlos Brathwaite – he managed only 2 games, 11 runs and 0 wickets. In 2018, they shelled out ₹2 crore for Mitchell Johnson, who delivered 2 wickets in 6 matches while going at over 10 an over. For every Narine, Russell or Starc, KKR’s ledger also has these forgotten gambles where the price tag far outlasted the performances.

IPL Auction LIVE: At the 2018 mega auction, Kolkata Knight Riders basically turned the usual IPL logic upside down. While other franchises walked away with 22–25 players, KKR finished with only 19 in their entire squad (including retentions) – the smallest group in the league that season. They had retained just Sunil Narine and Andre Russell and came into the auction with roughly ₹59 crore to spend. Instead of spreading it thin, they threw huge chunks of that purse at a tight core: almost ₹10 crore on Chris Lynn, a near-eight-figure bid on Mitchell Starc, and a big captaincy outlay on Dinesh Karthik.

By the end of the auction, KKR had used up almost their entire budget and, when you divide total spend by squad size, they had the highest average spend per player of any team in 2018 – over ₹4 crore per player. It was a deliberate gamble on quality and versatility over depth: fewer players, bigger roles, and a roster built on the belief that a compact, high-value core could carry them through a long season.

IPL Auction LIVE: Look at the Mumbai Indians’ costliest buy in each auction, and you get a neat snapshot of how the franchise has reinvented itself over 18 seasons. The early years are pure star power at the top: Sanath Jayasuriya ( ₹4.2 crore in 2008) and JP Duminy ( ₹4.6 crore in 2009), followed by the game-changing Kieron Pollard deal in 2010 and Rohit Sharma at ₹8.9 crore in 2011, the signing that eventually gave them their most successful captain.

The middle phase is about plugging specific roles – hitters and utility pieces like Glenn Maxwell (2013), Michael Hussey (2014), Jos Buttler (2016) and Karn Sharma (2017), along with recurring faith in Nathan Coulter-Nile in 2020 and 2021. The modern era, though, is big-money, long-term investment: Krunal Pandya at ₹8.8 crore in 2018, Ishan Kishan at ₹15.25 crore in 2022, and then the headline Cameron Green signing for ₹17.5 crore in 2023, followed by Trent Boult at ₹12.5 crore in 2025. It’s a progression from marquee names to role specialists to massive cheques on multi-season centrepieces.

IPL Auction LIVE: Jasprit Bumrah’s IPL journey is one of the greatest talent-spotting success stories in auction history. In the 2013 auction, the Mumbai Indians picked him up for just ₹10 lakh at his base price, after scout and former India coach John Wright spotted him in domestic T20s and pushed MI to sign the “kid with the weird action and endless yorkers”.

Bumrah announced himself immediately: on debut against RCB in 2013, he took 3/32, including the wicket of Virat Kohli after being hit for three fours in his first over. From there, MI built an era around him. He grew into the spearhead of a five-time champion side, delivering big nights like the 2019 final, where he was Player of the Match in a one-run win over CSK.

The salary graph tells the full arc: from ₹10 lakh in 2013 to multi-crore contracts, and now a massive ₹18 crore retention ahead of IPL 2025, where MI didn’t even risk putting him back in the auction. The franchise that once took a punt on an odd-looking seamer now treats him as the one player no purse can truly price.

IPL Auction LIVE: Hardik Pandya’s auction story starts in the shadows, not under the big lights. In the 2015 auction, the Mumbai Indians picked him up as an uncapped all-rounder for just ₹10 lakh, a low-base flyer on a Baroda hitter who could bowl a bit of seam. Within a couple of seasons, he became central to their balance – a late-overs enforcer with the bat, a handy third seamer and a livewire in the field – and stacked up four IPL titles with MI as a key member of their core.

Ahead of the 2022 mega auction, Hardik was released and then drafted by the new Gujarat Titans franchise as captain, where he led them to the title in their debut season and a runners-up finish the following year, transforming his image from finisher to full-fledged leader. The final twist came before the 2024 season, when he was traded back to the Mumbai Indians and immediately named captain, replacing Rohit Sharma. In less than a decade, the player signed as a ₹10 lakh uncapped gamble had gone from rookie, to superstar, to expansion-team captain, and then returned as the leader of the very franchise that first took a chance on him.

IPL Auction LIVE: One of the most dramatic auction stories in IPL history sits behind Kieron Pollard’s first deal with the Mumbai Indians in 2010. When his name came up that year, the bidding frenzy quickly escalated until four franchises – Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders – all hit the on-table limit of $750,000. Under the rules then, teams weren’t allowed to bid higher in public once that cap was reached, so the auction suddenly moved into a little-known mechanism: a silent tie-breaker.

Each of the four franchises had to submit a confidential extra bid, written down and handed to the organisers, with only the winning number ever seen. Mumbai’s hidden offer beats all others. The official $750,000 counted towards their salary cap, while the additional tie-breaker amount was paid separately to the IPL. The result changed their history. Pollard became a pillar of the Mumbai dynasty – a finisher, sixth bowler and big-match specialist for more than a decade – all decided by a sealed envelope that fans never saw.

IPL Auction LIVE: Track Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s costliest buy each season and you get a neat snapshot of how the franchise has evolved – and how often it has chased the biggest splash in the room. The early years are anchored by Jacques Kallis ( ₹3.8 crore in 2008) and the blockbuster Kevin Pietersen deal in 2009 ( ₹9.8 crore), one of the first mega bids in IPL history. The middle phase is all about batting stars and Indian names: Saurabh Tiwary ( ₹7 crore in 2011), Yuvraj Singh ( ₹14 crore in 2014) and Dinesh Karthik ( ₹10.5 crore in 2015), followed by Shane Watson ( ₹9.5 crore in 2016) and the famous Tymal Mills punt at ₹12 crore in 2017.

The more recent chapter doubles down on overseas all-rounders and quicks. Chris Morris ( ₹10 crore in 2020) and Kyle Jamieson ( ₹15 crore in 2021) headline that trend, before Wanindu Hasaranga ( ₹10.75 crore in 2022), Alzarri Joseph ( ₹11.5 crore in 2024) and Josh Hazlewood ( ₹12.5 crore in 2025) continue the theme. If CSK’s auction identity is “core and continuity”, RCB’s costliest-buys list reads like a franchise that keeps swinging for that one player who can change everything in a season.

IPL Auction LIVE: One of the wildest Royal Challengers Bengaluru auction stories belongs to Tymal Mills in 2017. The left-arm quick entered the auction with a base price of just ₹50 lakh, but a furious bidding war turned him into one of the shocks of the day. RCB finally snapped him up for ₹12 crore – that’s 24 times his base price, and one of the biggest mark-ups ever seen for a specialist overseas bowler in a mini-auction. Expectations were sky high: Mills was picked as the x-factor death bowler to support a batting-heavy RCB core. The reality never quite matched the cheque. He played only a handful of games that season before injuries and form pushed him out of the XI, and he was released ahead of the next auction. In hindsight, that 24x leap has become shorthand for RCB’s boom-or-bust auction gambles.