IPL 2026 auction ends as Mustafiz and Green hit records

IPL
Cameron Green and Mustafizur Rahman
Cameron Green and Mustafizur Rahman
Online Desk
Online Desk
The IPL 2026 auction has ended as the 10 teams spent a combined Rs 215.45 crore on 77 players, with 29 of them from overseas.

Bangaldesh's Mustafizur Rahman has secured the highest price of his IPL career after being signed by Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 9.2 crore. The Bangladesh left-arm pacer had entered the auction with a base price of INR 2 crore.

Three-time champions made him the most expensive Bangladeshi player in IPL history.

Meanwhile, another Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed went unsold.

The names of Shoriful Islam, Rishad Hossain, Rakibul Hasan, Nahid Rana, and Tanzim Sikib were not even entered into the auction.

Australia all-rounder Cameron Green became the most expensive overseas buy in Indian Premier League history, with a winning bid of 252 million rupees at auction on Tuesday.

Green's name, in the first set of players in the auction in Abu Dhabi, triggered a bidding war with former champions Kolkata Knight Riders finally signing him for the 2026 edition.

The big money for Green surpassed the previous overseas record of 247.5 million rupees paid by Kolkata in the 2024 auction for Mitchell Starc.

But due to conversion fluctuations between rupees and US dollars -- with India's rupee falling to a record low of over 90 to the greenback this month -- Starc's value at the time was higher in dollars.

Green on Tuesday was bought for the equivalent of $2.77 million, compared to $2.98 million splashed out for Starc.

Green himself has a capped salary of 180 million rupees ($1.98 million) due to a new "maximum fee" rule, with the remainder going to the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

He becomes the third most expensive player in the IPL, after India's Rishabh Pant (270 million rupees) and Shreyas Iyer (267.5 million rupees).

Green, 26, has scored 707 runs in 29 IPL matches for Mumbai Indians and defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

He missed the 2025 edition due to a back injury but is currently playing in the Ashes against England.

The business value of the IPL was estimated at $18.5 billion, according to US investment bank Houlihan Lokey.