2020 IPL Auction: RCB Need Most Players But KXIP Have Most Money

A total of 971 players enlisted for the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, 332 have made it to the final list with the eight teams needing to fill up a maximum of 73 slots.

Only seven players have listed their base price at the highest-possible Rs 2 crore with Robin Uthappa, at Rs 1.5 crore, being the highest-placed Indian on the auction list.

Lots of numbers are doing the rounds in the run-up to the auction in Kolkata on 19 December but here’s a look at some of the big numbers you need to keep in mind.

13

That’s how many players Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore have left in their squad after the massive purge in the off season. The maximum squad size allowed by the league is 25.

Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, and Colin de Grandhomme were among 12 players offloaded and going into the auction, RCB is likely to be the busiest team but there is the budgetary limit. Letting go of most players didn’t translate into freeing up most money because RCB have in their squad the most expensive player in the league - Virat Kohli who alone accounts for Rs 17 crore of their total purse. There’s also AB de Villiers who makes Rs 11 crores a season.

So, having spent Rs 57.10 crore already on 13 players, the franchise now have just Rs 27.90 crore left for the remaining 10 to 12 slots they need to fill.

Their middle order has always been a concern but Shivam Dube’s half century in the 2nd Windies T20 might help things out. There’s also the overseas players slots with just AB and Moeen Ali being the two non-Indians in the squad as of now.

Rs 42.70 Crore

Kings XI Punjab have the most money to spend (Rs 42.70 crore) at this auction and have just nine empty slots in their squad.

So, what does that mean? There are going to be some fierce bidding wars involving the franchise that may be looking for a new skipper after trading out their captain R Ashwin in the off season. The franchise also David Miller who’d been with them for almost a decade. Varun Chakravarthy and Sam Curran alone freed up Rs 15.6 crore.

In fact, KXIP are the only team who have more money in their ‘available’ column than in their ‘money spent’ bracket and go into the auction with a kitty of Rs 42.70 crore that they can use for nine slots while the 14 players on their roster currently are paid a total of Rs 42.30.

The team chose to retain Chris Gayle this time round and with KL Rahul also in the ranks, they may opt for the Indian cricket to lead the ranks. However, there are some big Aussie names going under the hammer in Kolkata and Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell may be on the team’s radar.

11

That’s how many players KKR released after yet another disappointing season this summer.

However, since Brendon McCullum has joined the coaching staff and facing the brunt were Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Lynn, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa who have all been sent back to the auction kitty. Some of these decisions may not turn out to be the wisest as KKR now will be looking to replace their opener and their number three batter as well.

What they do have going for them is the fact that they go into the auction with the second-highest auction purse at their disposal - Rs 35.65 crore needs to fill a maximum of 11 slots, four of them overseas so expect some KXIP vs KKR showdowns in Kolkata.

The team may elect to use their Right to Match card to buy back Chawla or Uthappa who have placed their base price at Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.5 crore respectively.

Rs 12.75 Crore

That’s the salary of the two players Delhi Capitals traded in in the off season. They brought in Punjab’s skipper R Ashwin and also Rajasthan’s ‘occasional skipper’ Ajinkya Rahane. Ashwin will be trying to make a final bid for the 2020 WT20 in the coming season and could be a key player for them and with Rs 27.85 crore at their disposal, DC will be looking now to add to their overseas players kitty with just Rabada, Keemo Paul and Lamichhane currently on their payrolls.

19

19 is the number of slots CSK, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad collectively need to fill at the 2020 IPL auction.

Yuvraj Singh an MI and Shakib al Hasan at SRH were the two forced released in the off season with Yuvraj announcing his retirement and Shakib being banned from all cricket for the next year after failing to report approaches by a bookie to the ICC. However, with neither player making a mark in 2019, neither team will be complaining.

Now with Rs 14.60 crore (CSK), Rs 13.05 crore (MI) and Rs 17 crore (SRH) left in their kitty, these 3 title favorites have the least amount of money to spend at the auction so it’ll be an interesting one to see if they spoil someone else’s plans or just sit back and go for their targets.

Rs 2 Crore

Rs 2 crore is the highest-possible base price players can enlist on and this time round there are seven players, all overseas, who have registered for the sum. A risk to go so high and thus some among Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Chris Lynn, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Dale Steyn & Angelo Mathews may in fact even go unsold.

Jason Roy, Chris Woakes, Eoin Morgan, Chris Morris and Robin Uthappa are slotted in the Rs 1.5 crore base price bracket. Other Indian stars like Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan & Jaydev Unadkat have set their base price at INR 1 crore.

Remember this is the last ‘small’ auction before the big one next year when teams get to retain just a few players and everyone goes back into the pool.