IPL is easily the biggest cricket league going around the globe and one of the reasons why it’s the biggest is the fact that players get paid huge amount of money here to showcase their skills.
As IPL 2020 reaches its business end, we will try and form the most expensive XI of the ongoing season based on the current salaries of the cricketers –
Openers (Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli)
Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been retained by their respective teams and while the fixed pay for the first retained cricketers is 15 Crore INR, the franchises are allowed to negotiate the price with their players.
While Mumbai Indians are paying Rohit Sharma an amount of 15 Crore INR fixed by BCCI, Virat Kohli is getting a bit of extra pay. The RCB skipper’s IPL salary is 17 Crore INR which is the highest in the league till date.
Middle order (KL Rahul, AB de Villiers, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni)
AB de Villiers and MS Dhoni are again the two players who were retained ahead of the mega auction in 2018, but the difference was that Dhoni was the first retained player of CSK, while De Villiers was the second retained player of RCB, hence the former’s current IPL salary is 15 Crore INR, while the latter gets 11 Crore INR per season at RCB.
KL Rahul was there in the mega auction in 2018 and Kings XI Punjab went all out for him eventually landing him at a hefty price of 11 Crore INR. Rahul’s price in the auction was totally worth it, given the fact that he brings a lot of quality to the table, not just with the bat, but with his leadership as well.
Kedar Jadhav also got a huge sum in the auction of IPL 2018 as he was bought by CSK for 7.8 Crore INR, but he didn’t repay the franchise with his performances at all. In his 3-year stay at CSK so far, Kedar has failed to score even a single half-century.
All-rounders (Ben Stokes, Pat Cummins)
Ben Stokes and Pat Cummins are two of the best players in the world at the moment, not just in white ball cricket, but in Test cricket as well. And their quality reflects in their IPL salaries.
While Stokes gets a salary of 12.5 Crore INR at Rajasthan Royals, Cummins gets 15.5 Crore INR at KKR which is the highest salary that an overseas cricketer has ever got in the IPL.
Spinner (Piyush Chawla)
Piyush Chawla is another ageing player who was bought at a huge price by CSK in the auction last year, but he couldn’t deliver the goods for the team. The veteran leg spinner was played ahead of Imran Tahir at the start of this season, but apart from the first game against Mumbai Indians, he couldn’t quite come to the fore.
Chawla is currently getting a salary of 6.75 Crore INR at CSK, but it’s very unlikely that his contract will be renewed by CSK next season.
Fast bowlers (Sheldon Cottrell, Jaydev Unadkat)
Sheldon Cottrell got a whopping price tag of 8.5 Crore INR in his very first IPL auction and although he did get Kings XI Punjab a few early wickets in some of the games this year, he hasn’t quite justified the huge price tag associated with him and it doesn’t seem as if he will get any further opportunities going forward in the tournament.
Jaydev Unadkat is also someone whose performance has been disappointing in the ongoing IPL despite the fact that he is currently getting a salary of 3 Crore INR at Rajasthan Royals.
