The price tag pressure in IPL: Can ₹20+ crore players really deliver?

The 2026 edition of the Indian Premier League is off to a great start on the field, with runs galore on the ground, while some bowlers have also proven their mettle in batting-friendly conditions. In this analytical preview, Eoin Morgan – Chief Cricket Analyst, Parimatch, one of the game’s most respected cricket minds – delivers a comprehensive breakdown of the big money being spent on players in the IPL and whether it is sustainable or not.

The 2026 season of the Indian Premier League is underway, and more than 15% of the matches scheduled for the 19th edition have already been played out, giving the franchises a little peek into their season.

With a couple of franchises spending upwards of ₹50 Crores in the mini-auction ahead of the season, their owners and team management could do with an analytical review of their spending and whether they were able to fill in the holes in their squads built in the mega-auction last year.

Eoin Morgan reviews KKR’s auction strategy

While most franchises prefer to do their business and sort out strategies in the mega-auction, Kolkata Knight Riders freed up half of their allotted purse ahead of the IPL 2026 mini-auction. 

While this allowed KKR to spend the most in the mini-auction and pick the players of their choice up for grabs this time around, it signalled a lack of a clear plan as they were trying to fill huge boots of former players with whomever is available in the mini-auction, which is generally a small group of players who either couldn’t enter the mega-auction or couldn’t make it work at their former franchises.

The Knight Riders have three of the top five amounts paid to a player in the auction against their name, with all three players coming in the last three auctions. While the investment of ₹24.5 Crores on Mitchell Starc won them the IPL title in 2024, the KKR think tank decided not to retain the Australian speedster and didn’t even bid after a certain point on Starc. The left-arm fast bowler was bagged by Delhi Capitals at a price of ₹11.75 Crores, less than half of what KKR paid in the mini-auction for his services.

At the same mega-auction, KKR went on and spent ₹23.75 Crores on Venkatesh Iyer, and the Madhya Pradesh all-rounder is a prime example of the weight of a huge price tag overburdening a top player. 

Venkatesh was a huge contributor in the IPL 2024 win as the southpaw scored 370 runs in 15 matches at an average of 46.25 and a strike rate of 158.79. After the pressure of the price tag came in, Venkatesh scored 142 runs in 11 matches as his average dropped to 20.29 while his strike rate fell to 139.22. Eventually, the Knight Riders released their prized asset ahead of the mini-auction to free up much-needed allotted purse amount.

With the amount freed up by releasing Venkatesh, one assumed that the Knight Riders might finally look towards replacing a player of Shreyas Iyer’s calibre and might bring in a leader to take charge and help KKR regain their glory days.

Instead, the KKR think tank, led by new head coach Abhishek Nayar and assistant coach Shane Watson, deemed it correct to spend ₹25.2 Crores on Cameron Green, who is still unproven in T20 cricket and doesn’t hold a T20 specialist reputation like their former all-rounder Andre Russell.

With Green still not back to bowling as he is building up his bowling workload ahead of a crucial 18 months for Cricket Australia, and his batting misfiring as he has scored 24 runs in three innings for KKR so far, the Knight Riders’ auction strategy needs to be revisited and pondered upon ahead of the next mega-auction.

Morgan feels overspending on players comes along with a heavy ‘Price Tag Pressure’

If we are talking about the last mega-auction, the crucial moment was when the IPL auction record was broken twice within a space of a few minutes as the Punjab Kings splashed ₹26.75 Crores on Shreyas Iyer, followed by the Lucknow Supergiants splurging ₹27 Crores on Rishabh Pant.

While the Kings took a punt on a leader who broke Delhi Capitals’ deadlock of not reaching the playoffs for 7 years and then helped the Knight Riders end their 10-year wait for an IPL trophy, the Lucknow-based franchise invested on Pant, who was not at his best at the time in T20s.

Shreyas went on to lead Punjab Kings in an IPL final, after a gap of 11 years, while Pant failed to get the hoodoo of being the costliest player in IPL history off his back. Ultimately, the price tag was something that affected the proceedings on the ground, even with experienced international players in the mix.

Then there is the case of Chennai Super Kings, who brought back the experienced trio of MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravichandran Ashwin in the same team to replicate the Super Kings’ success from their prime years.

But, it proved to be an unsuccessful attempt as Ashwin had to call time on his IPL career rather prematurely, while Jadeja was left wanting a change of scene as he was ultimately traded off to his former franchise, the Rajasthan Royals.

CSK unintentionally found the solution when they signed Dewald Brevis and Ayush Mhatre in the midst of IPL 2025 and decided to invest in young talent with the second biggest purse available in IPL 2026 mini-auction.

Stephen Fleming & Co ultimately decided to splurge that amount on the signings of Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer, who commanded ₹14 Crores each, a record for an uncapped player in IPL history.

In the first three matches, Kartik has failed to shine with an intense gaze on the young wicket-keeper batter in the absence of MS Dhoni, while Veer hasn’t bowled a single over despite being touted as Jadeja’s heir in the CSK setup.

The Super Kings would be hoping that their bet on young talent comes good as the Team in Yellow is aiming to win their sixth title in the ongoing IPL season. It would certainly be tough for youngsters like Kartik and Prashant to give their best with the pressure of the price tag weighing them down but CSK could turn around things if they trust in the duo, along with players like Sarfaraz Khan and Khaleel Ahmed, who have the hunger to prove themselves at the highest level.