IPL 2018 Auction: Most expensive XI

Wicketkeeper and All-rounders

#5 Dinesh Karthik(WK)

Karthik fetched Rs 7.4 crore as Kolkata Knight Riders looked to make amends for their early waiting game, winning a bidding war with Mumbai Indians. Karthik, who played for Gujarat Lions in IPL 2017, had a base price of Rs 2 crore.

Nimble and agile behind the stumps and aggressive in front of it, he has repeatedly delivered the goods in all formats of the game.Karthik has scored close to 3000 runs in 152 matches with a strike-rate of 126 in IPL.

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#6 Ben Stokes(C)

Ben Stokes was the most expensive buy of the 2017 IPL auction when Rising Pune Supergiant signed him for Rs. 14 crores. Subsequently, this year in the auction, he was again picked for a huge sum of Rs. 12.5 crores by Rajasthan Royals, the highest among all.

In 12 matches that he played last season, the all-rounder bagged 12 wickets and added a century to his name as well. He had an average of 31.6 and an astonishing strike rate of 142.

With the bat, Stokes can be used as an anchor in the middle-order and as a crisis man when the team is in a sport of bother as he has the ability to launch a counter-attack at will. His versatility gives the team management the option to use him anywhere in the batting order.

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#7 Krunal Pandya

Krunal Pandya was the name on the lips of all Mumbai Indians fans the past couple of years. MI might have considered retaining him as he would have cost them just INR 3 crore but, at the end, they retained their captain Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and death over specialist Jasprit Bumrah.

The all-rounder scored 240 runs and grabbed 10 wickets in the 10th edition of IPL with an economy of 6.82, the least for any Mumbai Indians bowler.

Mumbai got back the all-rounder through RTM for a whopping Rs. 8.8 crores after Royal Challengers Bangalore had bought him.