IPL 2016 Highest Paid Players, Full List of IPL Season 9 Player Salaries

There are just two days left for the 2016 edition of the IPL to commence as we get ready for another gripping and entertaining season of T20 cricket. Quite a lot has changed since the previous IPL in 2015, the most prominent change being the absence of former champion sides Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, both of whom are facing a two-year suspension following the spot-fixing controversy.

Taking their place are two new franchises, Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions, which ensures that the IPL remains an 8-team affair. Most of the players released by both the tainted franchises have found new teams, with some of the top names falling in the kitty of the two new joiners on the IPL team roster.

While the Rising Pune Supergiants bagged the likes of MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin and Steven Smith, the Gujarat Lions acquired the services of players such as Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo and Brendon McCullum. All of these names feature in the list of the highest paid players in the ninth season of India's premier domestic T20 tournament.

Ace Indian batsman and Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper, Virat Kohli, is the highest paid cricketer on this list with an annual salary of INR 15 crore. Following him closely are his Team India mates MS Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan who have both pocketed a salary of INR 12.5 crore each.

As many as 11 Indian players are among the top 20 highest paid players in the 2016 edition of the IPL. Talking about the international cricketers who are part of the IPL, Keiron Pollard of the Mumbai Indians is the top earner with an annual salary package of INR 9.7 crore. RCB's AB de Villiers is in second position among the foreigners with an earning of INR 9.5 crore.

There are a few players on this list who have an inflated actual salary compared to the amount that their franchise shelled out on them initially. Some of the prominent names in this regard are Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Faf du Plessis and Ambati Rayudu.

On the other hand, there are also some cricketers who receive a comparatively lesser salary than the amount they had fetched at the auction. This includes some popular players like Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, David Miller, Ravindra Jadeja and Brendon McCullum among others.

Here is the detailed list of highest paid/most expensive players in IPL 2016:

Sr. No	Team	Player	Country	Purse Deduction (INR)	Actual Salary (INR)
1	RCB	Virat Kohli	India	125,000,000.00	150,000,000.00 (15 cr)
2	SRH	Shikhar Dhawan	India	125,000,000.00	125,000,000.00 (12.5 cr)
3	Team Pune	M S Dhoni	India	125,000,000.00	125,000,000.00 (12.5 cr)
4	MI	Rohit Sharma	India	125,000,000.00	115,000,002.00 (11.5 cr)
5	KKR	Gautam Gambhir	India	125,000,000.00	100,000,000.00 (10 cr)
6	MI	Keiron Pollard	West Indies	95,000,000.00	97,000,000.00 (9.7 cr)
7	RCB	AB de Villiers	South Africa	95,000,000.00	95,000,000.00 (9.5 cr)
8	Team Rajkot	Suresh Raina	India	125,000,000.00	95,000,000.00 (9.5 cr)
9	RCB	Chris Gayle	West Indies	75,000,000.00	84,000,000.00 (8.4 cr)
10	MI	Lasith Malinga	Sri Lanka	75,000,000.00	81,000,000.00 (8.1 cr)
11	KKR	Sunil Narine	West Indies	95,000,000.00	80,000,000.00 (8 cr)
12	MI	Harbhajan Singh	India	55,000,000.00	80,000,000.00 (8 cr)
13	Team Pune	Ajinkya Rahane	India	95,000,000.00	80,000,000.00 (8 cr)
14	Team Pune	R Ashwin	India	75,000,000.00	75,000,000.00 (7.5 cr)
15	MI	Ambati Rayudu	India	40,000,000.00	60,000,000.00 (6 cr)
16	Team Rajkot	Ravindra Jadeja	India	95,000,000.00	55,000,000.00 (5.5 cr)
17	Team Rajkot	James Faulkner	Australia	55,000,000.00	51,000,000.00 (5.1 cr)
18	KXIP	David Miller	South Africa	125,000,000.00	50,000,000.00 (5 cr)
19	Team Pune	Faf du Plessis	South Africa	40,000,000.00	47,500,000.00 (4.75 cr)
20	Team Pune	Steven Smith	Australia	55,000,000.00	40,000,000.00 (4 cr)
21	Team Rajkot	Dwayne Bravo	West Indies	40,000,000.00	40,000,000.00 (4 cr)
22	Team Rajkot	Brendon McCullum	New Zealand	75,000,000.00	32,500,000.00 (3.25 cr)