Is he worth the money? This question arises every time a team opens up its auction purse to sign a player. Ask anyone from Kevin Pietersen to Rishabh Pant, and other top-dollar buyers; they’ll agree that the pressure of the price tag is real, and it starts to build up even before the action begins. While some cookies are popular, history shows that the cookies often fall apart.
The auction’s top buyer, Cameron Green, will highlight every misstep when the 2026 edition kicks off this weekend. After a fierce bidding war, Kolkata Knight Riders paid Rs 25.2 crore for the lanky Australian all-rounder, making him the third-highest purchase price in IPL history and the most expensive overseas player ever, surpassing fellow countryman Mitchell Starc, whom KKR paid Rs 24.75 crore for in 2024.
Green is hoping to take cues from his veteran international teammates in dealing with the scrutiny that comes with such a valuation.
Starc took just two wickets in the first four games and scored just 11 runs per over before turning things around. He eventually won the Man of the Match award in Qualifier 1 and the Final. After winning the 2024 final, Starc said, “The price tag doesn’t bother me. Nights like tonight are why I was picked.” Despite his good form, KKR chose not to retain him.
KKR coach Abhishek Nayar said after the 2026 auction that they want to “go all out” for Green. “With Andre Russell gone, we need someone to take the team forward,” he explained, emphasizing long-term investment.
However, the bigger question is what form the 26-year-old will be in when he takes on KKR’s first match against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
Green has been out of form since returning from back surgery and Australia are carefully managing his workload, particularly with the ball. KKR, however, is banking on the results he achieved in his first two IPL seasons with Mumbai Indians and later with Royal Challengers Bangalore before missing the 2025 edition due to injury.
He comes into the IPL after scoring a Sheffield Shield century for Western Australia, his first across formats since the ODI against South Africa in August 2025.
Knife is out, with former India off-spinner R Ashwin suggesting that Green’s salary should be cut if he doesn’t fulfill his full quota of overs.
If things don’t go right, Green will let fellow player Shane Watson guide him through the choppy waters. Watson, who is now KKR’s assistant coach, experienced the price pressure firsthand when RCB made him their first-choice player in 2016. After seven outstanding seasons with Rajasthan Royals, he struggled at RCB, scoring just 179 runs in 16 games despite taking 20 wickets.
Green isn’t the first, nor will he be the last, to come under the scanner for the money spent on him. What matters most is the player’s reaction.
Pietersen was the joint top buyer at the 2009 auction with Andrew Flintoff. RCB even named him captain but he soon found out that the IPL was a different story, scoring only 93 runs in six games as his captaincy also came under scrutiny.
In the mega auction of 2025, teams with bigger funds once again broke the records of Pant (Lucknow Supergiants for Rs 27 crore) and Shreyas Iyer (Kings XI Punjab for Rs 2,675 crore). Pant buckled under the pressure and had one of his worst seasons, while Shrias thrived, leading PBKS to the final and scoring over 600 runs – his best IPL season.
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis told JioHotstar that Pant will also “bear the burden of the price tag” this season.
The IPL has a history of ruining reputations, and few know this better than Yuvraj Singh, the highest-paid player in 2014 (Rs 14 crore for RCB) and 2015 (Rs 16 crore for Delhi Daredevils), but he has never replicated India’s form in the league. Years later, he admitted the stress took its toll. In 2020, he said during an Instagram live session with Mohammad Kaif: “Nobody likes to get so much money… People started saying he got so much money and still didn’t perform.”
Current India head coach Gautam Gambhir, KKR’s top signing in 2011 and one of the rare success stories, revealed in an interview with Cricinfo in 2018 that he “felt the pressure” in his seven years with the team. “If anyone says money is not a huge pressure, they are lying… When I was selected by KKR, the biggest pressure was money,” said Gambhir, who led the team to the title in 2012 and 2014.
Ultimately, franchises make expensive bets based on team needs. Sometimes the rewards are huge; Sometimes they write it off and move on.
