Indian Premier League (IPL) now is nine years old. It started in 2008 since then it has taken place for nine times, including this year. Before the beginning of each season, the auction takes place. Eight franchises leave drops some players for the auction to buy new players.
IPL, so far, has seen 12 teams, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Rajasthan Royals (RR), Delhi Daredevils (DD), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In 2011, Kochi Tuskers (KTK) played the while Pune Warriors India (PWI) played in 2013 to 2015. After that due to betting scandal CSK and RR was banned so two new teams- Gujarat Lions (GL) and Rising Pune Super Giants (RPSG) replaced them in 2016 for two years.
Players switching franchise is a common scenario in the IPL during these transfers and in auctions, which sometimes witness almost entire teams being restructured. There are only 11 players who have played all matches for one team since the beginning; some of them have played for three or more franchises.
Last year Mumbai Indians included Parthiv Patel in their team against Rajasthan Royals at Ahmedabad on April 14, 2015, they the sixth franchise Parthiv played for. Playing for six franchises in eight seasons is the highest for any player in IPL.
In fact, only one player has played for five franchises – Parthiv Patel’s opening partner Aaron Finch.
The table below who played the most IPL matches:
| No, of franchises | Players |
| 6 | Parthiv Patel |
| 6 | Aaron Finch |
Parthiv and Finch have played for 10 distinct IPL franchises between them. There have been eleven franchises so far. Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab are the only teams, two teams, to have included neither Parthiv no Finch.
Players who have played at list five matches:
| Player | Teams |
| Ashish Nehra | MI, DD, PWI, CSK, SRH |
| Ashok Dinda | KKR, DD, PWI, RCB, RPSG |
| Dinesh Karthik | DD, KIXP, MI,RCB, GL |
| RP Singh | DC, KTK, MI, RCB |
| Yuvraj Singh | KXIP, PWI, RCB, DD, SRH |
Players who have played for the most number of franchises:
| Abhishek Nayar | MI, KXIP, PWI,RR, |
| Manish Pandey | MI, RCB, PWI, KKR |
| Moises Henriques | KKR, DD, RCB, KXIP |
| Praveen Kumar | RCB, KXIP, MI, SRH |
| Robin Uthappa | MI, RCB, PWI, KKR |
| Ross Taylor | RCB, RR, DD, PWI |
| Shikhar Dhawan | DD, MI, DC, SRH |
| Thisara Perera | CSK, KTK, KKR, MI |
| Murali Kartik | KKR, PWI, RCB, KXIP |
| Ravindra Jadeja | RR, KTK, CSK, GL |