Cameron Green (Image credit: BCCI/KKR) Is it worth the money? It’s a question that comes up every time teams empty their auction purses to sign players. Ask anyone from Kevin Pietersen to Rishabh Pant and the most expensive buys in between; they will agree that the price tag pressure is real and is starting to mount even before the event begins. While some flourish, history shows that the cookie often crumbles.When the 2026 edition begins this weekend, the auction’s best buy – Cameron Green – will have every misstep highlighted. Kolkata Knight Riders spent R25.20 crore to land the burly Australian all-rounder after an intense bidding war, making him the third most expensive purchase in IPL history and the costliest overseas player ever, overtaking compatriot Mitchell Starc, who KKR bought for Rs 24.75 crore in 2024.
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Axar Patel questions Impact Player rule: ‘All-rounders lose value’Green hopes to take a cue from his senior international teammate on how to handle the scrutiny that comes with such an accolade.Starc took just two wickets in his first four matches and had an economy of 11 runs per over before turning things around. He ended up with the Player of the Match award 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 was selected.” Despite the knockout heroics, KKR chose not to hold on to 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, emphasizing the long-term investment.But the bigger question is what form the 26-year-old will be in when he takes the field in KKR’s opener against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Green hasn’t been in great form since returning from back surgery, with Australia handling his workload carefully, especially with the ball. However, KKR is banking on what he achieved in his first two IPL seasons with Mumbai Indians and later with Royal Challengers Bengaluru before missing out in 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 August 2025.With the knives out, former India opener R Ashwin suggests that Green’s pay check should be cut if he fails to complete his full quota of overs.If things go south, Green will have compatriot Shane Watson to guide him through the troubled waters. Now KKR assistant coach Watson experienced the price pressure first hand when RCB made him their best 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, and won’t be the last, to come under the scanner for the money they spent on him.? The most important thing is how the players react.Pietersen was the joint highest buy at the 2009 auction along with Andrew Flintoff. RCB even made him captain, but he soon found the IPL 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 once again broke records with Pant (Rs 27 crore for Lucknow Super Giants) and Shreyas Iyer (Rs 26.75 crore for Punjab Kings). Pant buckled under the pressure and endured one of his worst seasons while Shreyas thrived, leading PBKS to the final and scoring over 600 runs – his best IPL season.Former South African captain Faf du Plessis told JioHotstar that Pant will carry the “burden of the price tag” into this season as well.The IPL has a history of killing reputations and few know that better than Yuvraj Singh, the highest paid player in 2014 (Rs 14 crore with RCB) and 2015 (Rs 16 crore with Delhi Daredevils), who has never replicated his Indian form in the league. Years later, he admitted that the pressure was taking its toll. “No one likes when you get paid that much money… people start saying he’s getting that amount but he’s still not performing,” he said during an Instagram Live session with Mohammad Kaif in 2020.Current India coach Gautam Gambhir, KKR’s best buy in 2011 and one of the few success stories, revealed in an interview with Cricinfo in 2018 that he had “felt the pressure for seven years” at the franchise. “Whoever says money is not a big pressure would be lying… the biggest pressure when I was selected for KKR was about money,” said Gambhir, who led the team to titles in 2012 and 2014.Ultimately, franchises will take expensive punts driven by team needs. Sometimes the returns are rich; sometimes they write it off and just move on.
