IPL Players Auction: Who Will Buy Whom?

The IPL mega auction scheduled to be held next month could be the biggest ever in the history of the T20 league.

With the original eight teams allowed to retain a maximum of four players each and the addition of two new teams, the auction could witness some fierce bidding for the world's best players.

The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Jasprit Bumrah were retained by their original franchises. All-rounder Hardik Pandya and batter K L Rahul took over the captaincy of the two new franchises -- Team Ahmedabad and Lucknow Super Giants respectively.

But there are many fine cricketers up for grabs and there could be bidding fireworks at the auction.

Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, who retained four players each, have Rs 48 crore to spend at the auction. Punjab Kings, who retained just two players, has as much as Rs 72 crore to spend on new players at the auction.

A look at how the teams stack up ahead of the IPL players auction:

 

Chennai Super Kings

Having retained four of their original squad, CSK as always will be looking to buy back most of their other players including Faf du Plessis, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.

They could also bid aggressively to get back the pace trio of Josh Hazlewood, Sam Curran, Lungi Ngidi and veteran all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.

They may also want to have a wrist spinner in their ranks with the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav back in the auction.

 

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians retained four star players even though many would question keeping Kieron Pollard ahead of Quinton de Kock, Ishan Kishan or Trent Boult.

The West Indian has a good bonding with the team owners and a big say in the running of the team, hence his retention was not a surprise.

There is no doubt Mumbai Indians will break the bank to get back De Kock and Kishan -- two players who have done extremely well for them in the last few seasons.

With Hardik Pandya joining the Ahmedabad team and his brother Krunal also likely to leave, Mumbai Indians will be desperate to get their hands on all-rounders like Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.

It remains to be seen if Mumbai strengthen their middle by signing up local boy Shreyas Iyer who has thrown his name into the auction.

They have Rs 48 crore in the kitty and need another 15-18 players to complete their squad, hence they will have to tread very carefully.

 

Delhi Capitals:

Delhi Capitals spent the best part of recent seasons grooming young players and hence will have been gutted at being able to retain just four players.

Delhi Capitals's top priority will be getting back Kagiso Rabada. They were forced to let him go, preferring to retain his compatriot, Anrich Nortje.

Shreyas Iyer not wanting to stay back was a big blow while they made a surprise choice to retain Prithvi Shaw ahead of West Indian Shimron Hetmyer.

Delhi will aim to strengthen the middle order to fill the void left by Shreyas and aim to get back Shikhar Dhawan.

With Ricky Ponting at the coaching helm, you can expect Delhi to go all out for batting sensation Ben McDermott, who was the top run-getter in this year's BBL.

Fast bowler Avesh Khan will also be high on Delhi's shopping list at the auction.

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB are trying to overhaul their squad and end the title drought.

With Virat Kohli no longer at the helm, it remains to be seen who calls the shots on which players are to be bought at the auction.

A B de Villiers's retirement is also a huge blow while RCB were unable to convince leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to stay back.

It remains to be seen if RCB will spend big bucks to get back Chahal who will be in demand at the auction.

RCB will also be keen to get back Washington Sundar, Harshal Patel, Devdutt Padikkal and Navdeep Saini.

It is likely that they might go all out to bag either David Warner or Shreyas Iyer who could go on to lead the team this year.

Bowling has been a big issue for RCB in past seasons and this year the franchise could spend big to bag quality fast bowlers and spinners.

 

Kolkata Knight Riders

It came as no surprise that KKR retained Andre Russell as their top player while keeping spin twins Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy along with young all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer.

However, Shubman Gill's departure was a bitter blow as the young right-hander made a name for himself at KKR.

Kolkata will be keen to get back Captain Eoin Morgan and pace ace Pat Cummins.

The top names on the KKR shopping list will certainly be the players who have stuck with them for the last few years: Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti.

 

Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals retained Captain Sanju Samson, batter Jos Buttler and the young Yashasvi Jaiswal, spending Rs 28 crore.

Expect Royals to bid aggressively at the auction to fill in for their big names like Ben Stokes, who has pulled out of the IPL, along with Jofra Archer and the retired Chris Morris.

They will be keen to get back their young Indian players Chetan Sakariya, Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag and Kartik Tyagi.

Royals haven't retained any bowler, hence they are likely to spend a lot of buying some top pacers and spinners.

 

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers made the strange decision of retaining two young players -- Abdul Samad and Umran Malik -- along with Captain Kane Williamson.

They will have to make a lot of big buys at the auctionafter letting go of world-class players like Rashid Khan, David Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar hasn't been in form recently while Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar haven't lived up to expectations last season.

Sunrisers will have to bid aggressively at the auction as getting the best players won't be easy with 10 teams in the fray.

They might look to get Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer among the Indians to bolster their batting while they could spend big bucks on getting overseas fast bowlers like Pat Cummins or Trent Boult.

 

Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings spent the least in player retention as they kept back only two players, Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh.

With K L Rahul leaving the franchise, all its plans went haywire.

Punjab have the luxury of making some big buys at the auction, with Rs 72 crore in the kitty. Shreyas Iyer will top their list along with Shikhar Dhawan. Among the bowlers they might retain Mohammed Shami and also bag Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Thangarasu Natarajan.

They also need to get their hands on good spinners after Ravi Bishnoi joined Lucknow.

Punjab will be keen to get back Shahrukh Khan who has emerged as one of the best attacking talents in domestic cricket in the last couple of years.

They will be looking to bring back local talent in Harpreet Brar, Mandeep Singh and Prabhsmiran Singh.

 

Team Ahmedabad

Hardik Pandya has joined Ahmedabad as the captain. The new franchise also signed up ace spinner Rashid Khan and young batting star Shubman Gill.

They will be looking to go in for a few fast bowlers and experienced batsmen, and a couple of good spinners to bowl around Rashid.

It won't be a surprise if Ahmedabad decide to buy Krunal Pandya and unite him with his brother. Ishan Kishan might be one of the top names on the Ahmedabad list as are fast bowlers Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar or the South Africans Marco Jansen or Lungi Ngidi.

 

Lucknow Supergiants

Lucknow broke the bank to sign up K L Rahul for Rs 17 crore, while also getting their hands on all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and young spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

Like Ahmedabad, they also face a huge task of staving off competition from the established to sign the best players from around the world.

Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur and Harshal Patel could be high on their radar.

They will be keeping a keen eye on the next few international games, including the T20 series between the West Indies and England, and the likes of Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hossain could grab big deals.