IPL player trade and transfer: Biggest deals in Indian Premier League history

IPL Trade Deals: Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant have been part of some of the biggest transfers in IPL history. (AP/BCCI/PTI Photo)

The Indian Premier League (IPL) player trade and transfer window is eagerly followed by fans of the 10 franchises every year. The trade and retention window ahead of the IPL 2027 auction and season will briefly close on November 17. The last mini-auction of the ongoing cycle will be held on December 16, and teams will have to submit their list of retained players by next week. It will also be an interesting few days ahead, with a few big players likely to be up for movement through the trade window.

Over the last 18 years, the IPL has seen several player trades and transfers as part of player-to-player swap deals that have heavily impacted the involved franchises the following season.

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Shortly after the IPL 2026 season, Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav were involved in a trade deal between Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants. While Pant moved back to his former franchise DC, Kuldeep moved to LSG at Rs 13.5 crore. Pant’s earnings meanwhile nearly halved from his Rs 27 crore buy by Lucknow in the IPL 2024 season.

The massive buzz this week has been around the potential trade between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings, involving star India all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh. The deal could very likely become one of the most expensive player trades in IPL history. Last season, Sanju Samson was swooped up by Chennai Super Kings in a trade deal for Rs 18 crore from Rajasthan Royals, making it one of the most expensive player transfers ever in the IPL. In exchange, RR acquired the services of all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran.

Former India cricketers Zaheer Khan, Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra and Shikhar Dhawan were involved in the first major IPL trade deals in 2009. Zaheer and Uthappa were involved in a swap deal between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Mumbai Indians, with the latter moving to the RCB camp. Meanwhile, Dhawan moved from MI to Delhi Daredevils in exchange for Nehra’s services.

Full list of all major IPL player transfers and trades

IPL Major Trades and Transfers
Year	Player	From	To	Details
2009	Zaheer Khan	RCB	Mumbai Indians	Part of Robin Uthappa swap deal
2009	Ashish Nehra	Delhi Daredevils	Mumbai Indians	Part of Shikhar Dhawan swap deal
2012	Dinesh Karthik	KXIP	Mumbai Indians
2012	Pragyan Ojha	Deccan Chargers	Mumbai Indians
2012	Kevin Pietersen	Deccan Chargers	Delhi Daredevils
2013	Ashish Nehra	Delhi Daredevils	PWI	Part of Ross Taylor swap deal
2015	Parthiv Patel	RCB	Mumbai Indians
2016	KL Rahul	SRH	RCB
2019	Quinton de Kock	RCB	Mumbai Indians	Rs 2.8 crore
2019	Marcus Stoinis	KXIP	RCB	Rs 6.2 crore
2019	Shikhar Dhawan	SRH	Delhi Capitals	Rs 5.2 crore
2019	Abhishek Sharma	Delhi Capitals	SRH	Part of Dhawan swap deal
2020	R Ashwin	KXIP	Delhi Capitals	Rs 7.6 crore, part of J Suchith swap deal
2020	Trent Boult	Delhi Capitals	Mumbai Indians	Rs 3.2 crore
2020	Ajinkya Rahane	RR	Delhi Capitals	Rs 5.25 crore
2021	Harshal Patel	Delhi Capitals	RCB
2021	Robin Uthappa	RR	CSK
2022	Lockie Ferguson	Gujarat Titans	KKR	Rs 10 crore
2022	Shardul Thakur	Delhi Capitals	KKR	Rs 10.75 crore
2024	Avesh Khan	LSG	RR	Rs 10 crore, Swapped for Devdutt Padikkal
2024	Hardik Pandya	Gujarat Titans	Mumbai Indians	Rs 15 crore
2024	Cameron Green	Mumbai Indians	RCB	Rs 17.5 crore
2025	Sanju Samson	RR	CSK	Rs 18 crore
2025	Ravindra Jadeja	CSK	RR	Rs 14 crore, part of Samson swap deal
2025	Mohammed Shami	SRH	LSG	Rs 10 crore
2026	Rishabh Pant	LSG	DC	Rs 15 crore
2026	Kuldeep Yadav	DC	LSG	Rs 13.5 crre
2026	T Natarajan	DC	SRH	Rs 5 crore
2026	Liam Livingstone	SRH	CSK	Rs 6 crore