The IPL 2026 season is scheduled to begin on March 28. Once again all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. On one hand, Dhoni will be playing a competitive match after a gap of a year, while Rohit and Kohli will also be seen on the cricket field after several months. These three greats have a very high stature in the world of cricket, but do you know who among them is earning the most?
Who is getting the highest fees?
First of all, talking about MS Dhoni, Chennai Super Kings is giving him only ₹ 4 crore this time. In fact, it has been more than five years since Dhoni retired from international cricket; Therefore, as per BCCI rules, he was placed in the list of ‘uncapped players’ during the mini-auction. For this reason he will get only ₹4 crore.
Rohit Sharma will play for Mumbai Indians, and MI will pay him a sum of ₹16.30 crore for the IPL 2026 season. Hardik Pandya is captaining the Mumbai franchise from the 2024 season. Out of these three, Virat Kohli will get the highest fee. Ahead of the 2025 mega-auction, RCB had retained Virat Kohli for ₹21 crore. Royal Challengers Bangalore is going to pay him the exact same amount for the IPL 2026 season.
MS Dhoni – ₹4 crore
Rohit Sharma – ₹16.30 crore
Virat Kohli – ₹21 crore
Career of Virat, Rohit and Dhoni
Virat Kohli holds the record for scoring the most runs in the history of the Indian Premier League. So far, he has scored 8,661 runs after playing 267 matches; He is also the first batsman to cross the 8,000-run mark in IPL. Rohit Sharma is second in the list of highest run scorers, who has scored 7,046 runs so far. Whereas, MS Dhoni has scored 5,439 runs in his career.