Virat Kohli vs Rohit Sharma: IPL salary comparison over the years and 2020 earnings

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are two stalwarts in their own regards. Both of them have become iconic for their respective Indian Premier League franchises. While Virat Kohli is the only player to represent a single franchise for all the seasons of IPL during his tenure with Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Mumbai Indians captain has also represented the now-defunct Deccan Chargers in the past. 

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Both the players are the highest-paid players of their respective teams and amongst players overall in IPL history when i comes to salaries. It will be interesting to pit them against each in terms of their IPL salaries to find out their growth and where they stand against each other.

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Rohit Sharma's IPL salary by year

Year        Salary in INR                                

2008          3 Crores (Deccan Chargers)                              

2009          3 Crores (Deccan Chargers)

2010          3 Crores (Deccan Chargers)

2011          9.2 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2012          9.2 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2013          9.2 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2014         12.5 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2015         12.5 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2016         12.5 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2017          15 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2018          15 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2019          15 crores (Mumbai Indians)

2020          15 crores (Mumbai Indians)

Rohit Sharma is the most successful IPL captain in the history, having claimed the IPL title a record four times. He has 4,898 runs under his belt in 188 matches at a strike-rate over 130 and an average of 31.60. An interesting fact about Rohit Sharma's career is that he has a hat-trick to his name while playing for Deccan Chargers. 

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Virat Kohli's IPL salary so far

Year      Salary in INR                                  

2008       12 lakhs (RCB)   

2009       12 lakhs (RCB)

2010       12 lakhs (RCB)

2011        8,28,00,000 (RCB)

2012        8,28,00,000 (RCB)

2013        8,28,00,000 (RCB)

2014       12,50,00,000 (RCB)

2015       12,50,00,000 (RCB)

2016       12,50,00,000 (RCB)

2017       12,50,00,000 (RCB)

2018       17,00,00,000 (RCB)

2019       17,00,00,000 (RCB)

2020       17,00,00,000 (RCB)

Virat Kohli is the highest-paid cricketer in the lucrative league. He has amassed a mammoth 5,412 runs in 177 appearances at a strike-rate of over 130 and a healthy average of 38. The star batsman, who also is the captain of his franchise, will look to clinch their first title in the IPL 2020. 

In terms of salary, Kohli started off slower than Rohit since he hadn't made his India debut prior to the IPL 2008, which is why he was snapped up for just ₹12 lakh by RCB. Whereas Rohit was the key in helping India win the T20 World Cup 2007 and the historic CB tri-series in Australia in early 2008, which raised his stocks and bagged him a cool ₹3 crore deal with the Deccan Chargers for the first 3 seasons.

However, by 2014, Kohli had matched up to Rohit's salary at exactly ₹12.5 crore as both the players were the first to be retained by RCB and MI respectively, as they also were captaining their teams, being helped by the IPL's new player retention in salaries policy. But in 2018, Kohli went ahead of Rohit as RCB were ready to pay him ₹17 crore per season, which is the most for any player till date, while Rohit is being paid ₹15 crore per season, which is the same as his first captain and the CSK leader, MS Dhoni.

Virat Kohli's total IPL salary including the 2020 season will come up to ₹126.2 crore, while Rohit Sharma's total earnings from the tournament will add up to ₹134.1 crore, primarily due to earning way more in the first 6 seasons of the competition better than him.

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IPL 2020

The league is slated to commence from September 19 and end on November 10. Considering the COVID-19 situation, this edition will be held in the UAE. All the franchises must comply with the stringent guidelines and SOPs laid out by the BCCI. 

Image Credits: IPLT20