IPL 2019 auction: How the teams stack up for next season

Chennai Super Kings

The IPL Champions filled the only two spots for Indian players that they had available. Mohit Sharma returned to CSK following the franchise’s failure to pick up a left-arm pacer in Jaydev Unadkat after a heated bidding war with Rajasthan Royals. MS Dhoni’s familiarity withthe two pacers during their stints at CSK and Rising Pune Supergiantrespectively may have influenced the CSK management’s aggressive bidding forthose two. Mohit was CSK’s most expensive buy at INR 5 crore, but they failed to secure a left-arm quick and a back-up Indian offspinner for Harbhajan Singh.

Total players: 25

Number of overseas players: 8

Openers: Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, M Vijay

Middle-order batsmen: Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Sam Billings, Dhruv Shorey, Ruturaj Gaikwad

Wicketkeepers: MS Dhoni, J Narayan

Allrounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Monu Kumar, David Willey

Wristspinners: Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir

Fingerspinners: Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner

Fast bowlers: Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Lungi Ngidi, Mohit Sharma

Delhi Capitals

The new-look franchise came with assistant coach Mohammad Kaif, flanked by fresh team owners. They filled the gaps left by allrounders – that have been traded with Sunrisers Hyderabad – by picking up  Axar Patel (their most expensive buy at INR 5 crore), West Indian hard-hitterSherfane Rutherford and Kerala allrounder Jalaj Saxena. They also backed India’s Test duo of Hanuma Vihari and Ishant Sharma, together with pinch-hitting Guyanese fast bowler Keemo Paul. T20 specialist Colin Ingram, alate buy, added variety to their middle order that is primarily composed of young Indian batsmen.

Total players: 25

Number of overseas players: 8

Openers: Colin Munro, Prithvi Shaw, Manjot Kalra, Shikhar Dhawan

Middle-order batsmen: Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Colin Ingram

Wicketkeepers: Rishabh Pant, Ankush Bains

Allrounders: Chris Morris, Jalaj Saxena, Axar Patel, Bandaru Ayyappa, Sherfane Rutherford

Wristspinners: Amit Mishra, Rahul Tewatia, Sandeep Lamichhane

Fingerspinners: Jayant Yadav

Fast Bowlers: Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Ishant Sharma, Keemo Paul, Nathu Singh

Kings XI Punjab

They started the auction with the most money to spend and bought 13 players under the watchful eyes of a new coach, and former  New Zealand coach, Mike Hesson. They beat four other teams to get mysteryspinner Varun Chakravarthy for INR 8.40 crore, and also snapped up England allrounder Sam Curran for INR 7.20 crore. Apart from these big buys, they picked up Australia’s Moises Henriques, who will be available for the whole tournament, and some young Indian allrounders.

They also backed pacers who bowled hard balls. Hardus Viljoen – who finished with the most wickets in the T10 league -and Mohammed Shami were added to their pace battery. Prabhsimran Singh, only17, went for a whopping INR 4.80 crore, presumably due to his performances withIndia’s Emerging squad at the U-19 Asia Cup. Harpreet Brar and Agnivesh Ayachiwere also among those who were shortlisted by Kings XI’s player scouts.Nicholas Pooran, who gave a solid audition during West Indies’ tour of India,was taken for INR 4.20 crore.

Total players: 23

Number of overseas players: 8

Openers: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle

Middle-order batsmen: Karun Nair, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan

Wicketkeepers: Prabhsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran

Allrounders: Agnivesh Ayachi, Varun Chakravarthy, Darshan Nalkande, Harpreet Brar, Moises Henriques, Sam Curran

Wristspinners: Mujeeb Ur Rahman, M Ashwin

Fingerspinners: R Ashwin

Fast bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, Mohammed Shami

Kolkata Knight Riders

What KKR lacked last year – back-ups for their overseas players plus an experienced pace attack – has been sorted some what. They’ve got Carlos Brathwaite at a slightly-inflated INR 5 crore andEngland’s Joe Denly as possible replacements for an injury-prone Andre Russell. Denly’s addition gives KKR a cushion if Chris Lynn leaves early for Australia’sWorld Cup prep. That will allow Uthappa to slot in as opener with Denly taking the fourth overseas spot.

With Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson discarded, KKR added Anrich Nortje – who bowled 150kph+ in the Mzansi SuperLeague – and New Zealand’s right-arm pacer Lockie Ferguson to their overseas bowling team. From a very thin 18-man squad last year, they’re now at 21. It remains the smallest of all eight squads.

Total players: 21

Number of overseas players: 8

Openers: Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa

Middle-order batsmen: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh

Wicketkeepers: Dinesh Karthik, Nikhil Naik

Allrounders: Andre Russell, Joe Denly, Shrikant Mundhe, Carlos Brathwaite

Wristspinners: Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav

Fingerspinners: Sunil Narine

Fast bowlers:: Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Raj, Harry Gurney, Anrich Nortje, Lockie Ferguson

Mumbai Indians

Total players: 24

Number of overseas players: 8

Mumbai were one of the first teams to stop shopping at the auction in Jaipur. They bought six players, mostly to fill ingaps, and their biggest buys were Lasith Malinga – at a base price of INR 2crore following a mentoring stint with them last season – and Yuvraj Singh,twice the IPL’s most expensive Indian, after his name came up for a third timefollowing two unsuccessful calls for a bid by the auctioneer.

They also added fast bowlers Barinder Sranand Rasikh Salam, in case Jasprit Bumrah is not available for the whole season. Mumbai’s primary XI was already set up with the addition of Quinton de Kock via trade with Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier this year, and they chose to simply plug a few holes in their bench. Mumbai, however, failed to get aback-up wristspinner for IPL 2018 sensation Mayank Markande.

Openers: Evin Lewis, Quinton de Kock, Anmolpreet Singh

Middle-order batsmen: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad

Wicketkeepers: Ishan Kishan, Aditya Tare

Allrounders: Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Ben Cutting, Yuvraj Singh, Pankaj Jaiswal

Wristspinners: Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar

Fingerspinners: Anukul Roy

Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jason Behrendorff, Rasikh Salam, Lasith Malinga, Barinder Sran

Rajasthan Royals

Coming into the auction, their primary focus was to look at safety-guards due to the limited availability of (up to) three English superstars and Australian Steven Smith, but they weren’t able to fully do that. They moneyballed on Perth Scorchers’ Ashton Turner and formerLancashire captain Liam Livingstone, while West Indies quick Oshane Thomas was bought for INR 1.10 crore.

Varun Aaron joined Oshane – and Jofra Archer- to strengthen their pace line-up, while last season’s most expensive Indian Jaydev Unadkat was brought back for INR 8.40 crore – 3.10 crore less than his price tag from last season. With a squad still having some spots available, Royals picked up three youngsters during the third accelerated bidding process. Barring allrounder K Gowtham, however, Royals’ squad has no finger spinners.

Total players: 25

Number of overseas players: 8

Openers: Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi

Middle-order batsmen: Steven Smith, Aryaman Birla, Manan Vohra

Wicketkeepers: Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Prashant Chopra

Allrounders: Ben Stokes, Stuart Binny, Jofra Archer, K Gowtham, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Shashank Singh, Liam Livingstone, Ashton Turner, Shubham Ranjane

Wristspinners: Shreyas Gopal, Midhun S, Ish Sodhi

Fingerspinners: –

Fast bowlers: Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni, Varun Aaron, Oshane Thomas

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Two high-profile purchases in Mumbai allrounder Shivam Dube (INR 5 crore) and West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer(INR 4.20 crore) took a large chunk of their purse away. Heinrich Klaasen’saddition solved RCB’s dearth of wicketkeepers after the exit of Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock.

They failed to buy any Indian bowlers,opting to instead purchase Milind Kumar – the fastest man to 1,000 Ranji Trophy runs this season – and wicketkeeper Akshdeep Nath. But one problem they failed to solve was that of their opening combination. Parthiv Patel aside, they don’t have a senior opening batsman, and that raises a question on Virat Kohli’s batting position in 2019..

Total players: 24

Number of overseas players: 8

Openers: Devdutt Padikkal

Middle-order batsmen: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Milind Kumar, Himmat Singh, Shimron Hetmyer

Wicketkeepers: Parthiv Patel, Heinrich Klaasen

Allrounders: Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Marcus Stoinis, Prayas Ray Barman, Akshdeep Nath, Gurkeerat Singh, Shivam Dube

Wristspinners: Yuzvendra Chahal

Fingerspinners: Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi

Fast bowlers: Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mohammad Siraj, Tim Southee

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad were astute in the auction room. Wriddhiman Saha, released last month after being bought for INR 5crore, was bought back for INR 1.20 crore. Sunrisers also added wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow and opener Martin Guptill to their roster.

With David Warner likely to miss the firstand last week of the tournament and Shikhar Dhawan traded to Delhi, Bairstowand Guptill could make up for their lack of openers. Having already procuredthree players in Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar and Shahbaz Nadeem from Delhi in a swap for Dhawan, the Sunrisers kept their shopping list short, but finished with no overseas replacement for the injury-prone Billy Stanlake.

Total players: 23

Number of overseas players: 8

Openers: David Warner, Martin Guptill

Middle-order batsmen: Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Ricky Bhui

Wicketkeepers: Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Jonny Bairstow

Allrounders: Shakib Al Hasan, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Deepak Hooda, Mohammad Nabi

Wristspinners: Rashid Khan

Fingerspinners: Shahbaz Nadeem

Fast Bowlers: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Billy Stanlake

70 slots available, 60 filled

While all teams filled their full overseas quota of eight players, only three of them – Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals – filled all 25 slots in their squad. Kolkata Knight Riders ended with 21 players, the fewest in the field.

Caribbean hit a 6, England’s fifer

West Indies ended up with the highest representation among overseas sides, with as many as six of their stars attracting bids. With most of them coming at relatively low, below-one-crore base prices, they were all snapped up for a cumulative INR 17 crores, five times their combined base price of INR 3.4 crores. England, despite their players not being available after April 25, 2019 – they will miss almost half the tournament – ended up with five players, all first-timers, being bought. Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Denly, Harry Gurney and Liam Livingstone areall set to make their IPL bow in 2019.

Capped Indian fast bowlers: Worth (over five times) their weight in gold

Eight capped Indian fast bowlers were up forbidding. Only two – Karnataka’s Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun – went unsold. The rest fetched hefty price tags, total 5.3 times their listed reserve price. Jaydev Unadkat, a left-arm seamer and hence a precious commodity, was boughtback by Rajasthan Royals, for 5.6 times his INR 1.5 Crore base price. That still represented a bargain for Royals, who had spent INR 11.5 crore on him last year before releasing him in the off-season.

Once a near-guarantee to trigger bidding wars, Yuvraj Singh’s value at the IPL auction has declined since Delhi Daredevils bought him for 16 crore in the 2015 auction. On Tuesday, he wentunsold in the first round, before Mumbai Indians bought him in the rapid-firebidding towards the end. This is the second successive season he has been soldat base price.

You either go unsold and fade into oblivion,or live long enough to play for every IPL team. With their latest IPL deals,Yuvraj and Ishant Sharma’s count has risen up to six IPL sides, equalling therecord set by a number of others already, most famously Parthiv Patel. They’re still one short of perpetual franchise-hopper Aaron Finch’s, whose all-time record count stands at seven. Yuvraj hasn’t yet represented CSK, KKR and Royal samong the active franchises. Will he be around long enough to become the first to complete the entire set?

16 years 54 days, and other teenage signings

Prayas Ray Barman is all of 16 years and 54 days old, and won’t be 17 by the time IPL 2019 comes around. Royal Challengers Bangalore put in a 1.5 crore bid for the teenager, a mystery spinner makingwaves in age-group cricket. If he plays in the upcoming edition, Barman willbecome the youngest player in the tournament’s history, going past Mujeeb urRahman, who debuted for Kings XI Punjab aged 17 years and 11 days.

He is among five players born after 2000 to be picked up by teams at the auction, along with Rasikh Dhar (Mumbai), Riyan Parag (Royals), Devdutt Padikkal (RCB) and Prab Simran Singh (KXIP).

42 – Varun Chakravarthy’s magical number

Varun Chakravarthy was an architect who’d given up his cricketing hopes not so long ago, but was almost certain to be among the biggest buys at the auction, having excelled with his mystery spin in the Tamil Nadu Premier League. As an uncapped player, he had set his reserveprice at just INR 20 lakhs, and benefited from a multi-way bidding war betweenfranchises. When the hammer came down, he had fetched himself 8.4 crores, 42times his base price. It fell just short of the 45 multiple paid by Rising PuneSupergiant for Tamil Nadu legspinner M Ashwin in the 2016 auction, comfortablythe highest in the last four seasons.