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Auction value
Buy the role, not the reputation.
The biggest cheque is only a good buy when it unlocks repeatable fantasy scoring. This is the auction map behind the 2026 IPL table.
At the auction table, there was no mistaking the big spenders.
Tom Moody's Lucknow Super Giants, Stephen Fleming's Chennai Super Kings, Abhishek Nayar's Kolkata Knight Riders and Venugopal Rao's Delhi Capitals were the four biggest-spending sides at the most recent IPL auction. None finished higher than sixth.
The natural question, in the spirit of Dame Shirley, is what was going on in their minds.
Behind the glitz and glamour of the headline signings, Skippr Editorial has crunched the numbers from the 2026 IPL to work out which team delivered the best value for money. A word of warning: there is a cautionary tale here for anyone brave enough to take on their first auction in the Skippr app.
The auction in one minute
Best value
GT: 219 pts/₹cr
Gujarat edged Rajasthan by 0.04 points per crore.
Lowest value
LSG: 33 pts/₹cr
Lucknow delivered about 15% of the leaders' return.
Biggest spend
KKR: ₹62.85cr
Kolkata finished seventh despite the largest auction outlay.
Top finish
RCB: champions
The champions ranked seventh for auction value at 88 points per crore.
Using fantasy points per crore spent, Ashish Nehra's Gujarat Titans just came out on top, pipping the "Moneyball" Rajasthan Royals by fewer than 0.05 points per crore. Both round to 219 in the team-by-team breakdown below.
It is no surprise, then, that only Andy Flower — the widely acknowledged best coach in the world, just ask Rob Key — and his Virat Kohli-influenced RCB squad could finish above both sides. Gujarat and Rajasthan ended second and third respectively.
Gujarat find the winning formula
The how behind the what for Gujarat came predominantly in the 6ft 7in shape of Bajan all-rounder Jason Holder. Bought for ₹7 crore, the franchise ever-present produced 2,000 fantasy points, accounting for just shy of 11% of GT's full team total.
His return of 286 fantasy points per crore was elite. It also speaks to the value of finding a reliable wicket-taking option who can pair strike bowling with a miserly approach: Holder's 7.56 economy rate was the third-best in the competition.
Backing a productive headline signing with a supporting cast of low-risk options, such as Ashok Sharma, proved the perfect formula for the Titans — and one on which they can build looking ahead to 2027.
Rajasthan make the cheap seats count
Rajasthan's battery of low-cost purchases yielded spectacular returns too. Brijesh Sharma accounted for 7.5% of RR's total team points from a price of just ₹30 lakh, while Yash Raj Punja contributed 4.9% from the same price.
Sharma even eclipsed Rajasthan's most expensive signing, Ravi Bishnoi, in total fantasy points. Ably assisted by the wily Jadeja — himself the product of a trade Rajasthan lost on fantasy points — it is easy to see why the Royals were such a threat.
The cheapest names are not automatically value. They become value when the role gives them a reliable route into the points.
Where the big spending went wrong
Lucknow finish bottom twice
At the other end of the table, Lucknow Super Giants finished 10th both in the IPL standings and for fantasy points per crore spent. Tom Moody, a champion in The Hundred, fell short on his IPL brief.
In contrast to Gujarat and Rajasthan's 219 points per crore, LSG delivered just 33 — around 15% as many — from an auction outlay of ₹18.40 crore.
Their marquee signing, Josh Inglis, cost ₹8.6 crore and produced 367 fantasy points. That represented only 3.4% of LSG's total for the season despite accounting for 47% of the auction spend captured in this analysis.
Kolkata pay the Green premium
The biggest cautionary tale, though, came from Kolkata, where a record ₹25.2 crore was shelled out on Cam Green.
Even with a significant individual contribution, that worked out at only 47 fantasy points per crore. Put another way, Green supplied 9.4% of the team's total points for 40% of its auction spend. That was a stark contrast to Finn Allen, who delivered 9.9% of KKR's points from only 3% of the spend.
The comparison leaves Kolkata's allocation of its auction budget squarely under the microscope.
Auction value by team
Highest returns
GT
219 pts/₹cr
₹10.95cr spent · 2,398 points · runners-up
RR
219 pts/₹cr
₹13.40cr spent · 2,934 points · third
SRH
202 pts/₹cr
₹17.05cr spent · 3,446 points · fourth
MI
186 pts/₹cr
₹2.20cr spent · 409 points · ninth
PBKS
171 pts/₹cr
₹8.00cr spent · 1,368 points · fifth
Lower returns
DC
129 pts/₹cr
₹21.45cr spent · 2,769 points · sixth
RCB
88 pts/₹cr
₹16.15cr spent · 1,421 points · champions
KKR
62 pts/₹cr
₹62.85cr spent · 3,890 points · seventh
CSK
47 pts/₹cr
₹41.00cr spent · 1,928 points · eighth
LSG
33 pts/₹cr
₹18.40cr spent · 600 points · 10th
Of course, the teams that faltered this year will come again next season to put right their wrongs, and those investments may yet prove to be money well spent. In the here and now, though, big bids, big names and big numbers are not necessarily the recipe to follow as you construct your side.
Big spending only pays when the role justifies the price.