Where will Virat Kohli bat for RCB? Have KKR insured well against injuries this time around? Here’s what we know – and wonder – about the teams post-auction
Sreshth Shah18-Dec-20186:57
IPL 2019 auction: Rating the squads
Chennai Super KingsThe 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 with the two pacers during their stints at CSK and Rising Pune Supergiant respectively may have influenced the CSK management’s aggressive bidding for those 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, N Jagadeesan
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 CapitalsThe 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 Indian at INR 5 crore), West Indian hard-hitter Sherfane 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, a late buy at 6.40 crore, added variety to their middle order that is primarily composed of young Indian batsmen.Total players: 24
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
Fast Bowlers: Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Ishant Sharma, Keemo Paul, Nathu Singh
Kings XI PunjabThey started the auction with the most money to spend and bought 13 players under the watchful eyes of new coach, and former New Zealand coach, Mike Hesson. They beat four other teams to get mystery spinner 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, only 17, went for a whopping INR 4.80 crore, presumably due to his performances with India’s Emerging squad at the U-19 Asia Cup. Harpreet Brar and Agnivesh Ayachi were 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 RidersWhat KKR lacked last year – back-ups for their overseas players plus an experienced pace attack – has been sorted, somewhat. They’ve got Carlos Brathwaite at a slightly-inflated INR 5 crore and England’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’s World 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 Super League – 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 IndiansTotal 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 in gaps, and their biggest buys were Lasith Malinga – at a base price of INR 2 crore 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 time following two unsuccessful calls for a bid by the auctioneer.They also added fast bowlers Barinder Sran and 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 a 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 a back-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, Jayant Yadav
Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jason Behrendorff, Rasikh Salam, Lasith Malinga, Barinder Sran
Rajasthan RoyalsComing into the auction, their primary focus was to look at safety-guards due to the limited availability of (upto) three English superstars and Australian Steven Smith, but they weren’t able to fully do that. They moneyballed on Perth Scorchers’ Ashton Turner and former Lancashire 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 fingerspinners.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 BangaloreTwo 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’s addition 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 HyderabadSunrisers Hyderabad were astute in the auction room. Wriddhiman Saha, released last month after being bought for INR 5 crore, 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 first and last week of the tournament and Shikhar Dhawan traded to Delhi, Bairstow and Guptill could make up for their lack of openers. Having already procured three 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