Is he worth the money? It’s a question that comes up every time teams empty their auction purse to sign a player. Ask anyone from Kevin Pietersen to Rishabh Pant and the other most expensive buys in between; they will agree that the pressure of a price tag is real and it begins building even before the action starts. While some flourish, history shows the cookie often crumbles.When the 2026 edition kicks off this weekend, top buy of the auction— Cameron Green—will have every misstep highlighted. Kolkata Knight Riders splurged Rs 25.20 crore to secure the burly Australian allrounder after an intense bidding war, making him the third most expensive buy in IPL history and the costliest overseas player ever, overtaking compatriot Mitchell Starc, who KKR bought for Rs 24.75 crore in 2024.
Green hopes to take a cue from his senior international teammate on handling the scrutiny that comes with such a valuation.Starc had taken just two wickets in his first four matches and was going at an economy of 11 runs per over before turning things around. He eventually finished with Player of the Match awards in Qualifier 1 and the final. After winning the 2024 final, Starc said, “Price tags don’t bother me. Nights like tonight are why I have been picked.” Despite the knockout heroics, KKR chose not to retain him.KKR coach Abhishek Nayar said after the 2026 auction that they wanted to “go all out” for Green. “With Andre Russell gone, we need someone to take the franchise forward,” he explained, underlining the long-term investment.The bigger question, however, is in what shape the 26-year-old will be when he takes the field in KKR’s opening match against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
Green hasn’t been in great form since returning from back surgery, with Australia managing his workload cautiously, especially with the ball. KKR, though, are banking on what he achieved in his first two IPL seasons with Mumbai Indians and later with Royal Challengers Bengaluru before missing 2025 due to injury.He enters the IPL on the back of a Sheffield Shield century for Western Australia—his first across formats since an ODI ton against South Africa in Aug 2025.Knives are already out, with former India off-spinner R Ashwin suggesting Green’s pay cheque should be sliced if he doesn’t bowl his full quota of overs.If things go south, Green will have countryman Shane Watson to guide him through choppy waters. Now KKR’s assistant coach, Watson experienced price-tag pressure firsthand when RCB made him their top buy in 2016. After seven stellar seasons with Rajasthan Royals, he struggled at RCB, scoring just 179 runs in 16 matches despite taking 20 wickets.Green isn’t the first, nor will he be the last, to come under the scanner for money spent on him.? What matters most is how players react.Pietersen was the joint top buy in the 2009 auction alongside Andrew Flintoff. RCB even made him captain, but he soon discovered IPL was a different kettle of fish, scoring just 93 runs in six matches as his captaincy too came under scrutiny.In the 2025 mega auction, with a bigger purse, teams broke records again with Pant (Rs 27 crore to Lucknow Super Giants) and Shreyas Iyer (Rs 26.75 crore to Punjab Kings). Pant buckled under pressure and endured one of his worst seasons, while Shreyas thrived, leading PBKS to the final and scoring 600-plus runs—his best IPL season.Former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis told JioHotstar that Pant will “carry the burden of the price tag” into this season as well.IPL has a history of murdering reputations, and few know it better than Yuvraj Singh, the highest-paid player in 2014 (Rs 14 crore with RCB) and 2015 (Rs 16 crore with Delhi Daredevils), who never replicated his India form in the league. Years later, he admitted pressure takes its toll. “No one likes when you are given this amount of money… people start saying he is getting this amount but still not performing,” he said during an Instagram live session with Mohammad Kaif in 2020.Current India coach Gautam Gambhir, KKR’s top buy in 2011 and one of the rare success stories, revealed in a 2018 interview with Cricinfo that he “felt the pressure for seven years” with the franchise. “Whoever says money is not a huge pressure would be lying… the biggest pressure when I got picked for KKR was about money,” said Gambhir, who led the team to titles in 2012 and 2014.In the end, franchises take expensive punts driven by team needs. Sometimes the returns are rich; sometimes they write it off and simply move on.
