Who were the most expensive players in the past IPL auctions?

Cricket Desk: It won’t be wrong to say that the auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) is as exciting as the tournament itself. Over the years, the auction has given the game of cricket some most exciting and beautiful stories. From unknown faces becoming millionaires to big names going unsold, the last 13 auctions of the IPL has seen it all.

The auction for the fourteenth season of the IPL is now just a couple of weeks away. While the auction was originally scheduled to be a mega one, it will be a mini one because of the short time between IPL 2020 and IPL 2021. The BCCI has already announced that the auction would take place on February 18 in Chennai. As far as the tournament is concerned, it is likely to start in the second week of April.

Most Expensive Player in IPL History (season wise):

With the auction of the upcoming season not very far away, the excitement has started to build up. The cricketing fraternity is eagerly waiting to see who will become the most expensive player this time around. Well, while only time will reveal the answer, we have gone back through the record books to review the most expensive players in the past seasons.

In the very first-ever auction, MS Dhoni was the costliest player and it did not raise any eyebrows. Following India’s triumph in the 2007 T20 World Cup and Dhoni’s abilities as a batsman and captain, he was the most in-demand player in auction. Chennai Super Kings had secured his services for Rs 9.5 crores. Since then, he has been with the Chennai-based outfit and has led them to three IPL titles.

In the following year, two England players – Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff – became the costliest players before Shane Bond and Kieron Pollard took the honours ahead of IPL 2010. For the 2011 edition, Kolkata Knight Riders made Gautam Gambhir the costliest player by splashing a whopping amount of Rs 14.9 crores. In the following seasons, the likes of Yuvraj Singh (twice), Ben Stokes (twice), Ravindra Jadeja, Jaydev Unadkat became the costliest players. Last season, Pat Cummins became the costliest player in the history of IPL.