IPL 2018 Auction: Team Preview
The IPL auction is now closer than ever and everyone from the team owners to the players and the fans is ready to see the franchises fight it out to secure the services of the best T20 players in the world.
The teams were allotted a purse of Rs 80 crore for this year's auction, a sum which has since been adjusted following the player retention by each franchise on January 4, 2018.
The franchises also have the Right to Match cards at their disposal. The RTM cards allow a team to match the offer made by another team for a former player of theirs from the previous season. Each team has either 2 or 3 RTMs based on the number of players they retained.
Some of the biggest names will go under the hammer this Saturday and Sunday and fans cannot wait to watch the action unfold.
Here is a look at how each team might approach the auction:
Chennai Super Kings:
IPL's most successful team is back after serving a two-year suspension. The Chennai Super Kings won the IPL twice, in 2010 and 2011, while finishing runners-up three times, in 2012, 2013 and 2015. They will look to continue the trend with some solid buys in the 2018 auction.
Who have Chennai Super Kings Retained?
Chennai Super Kings' retention policy went according to the script as they retained India's most successful captain MS Dhoni, IPL's highest run-getter Suresh Raina and one of the most dynamic all-rounders in world cricket, Ravindra Jadeja.
According to the new guidelines for IPL 2018, Dhoni has a salary cap of Rs 15 crore, Raina Rs 11 crore and Jadeja Rs 7 crore. So, Chennai Super Kings now have INR 47 crore or $7.36 million left in their auction purse. They also have two RTM cards in their possession which they can only use on overseas and uncapped players as they have retained their maximum quota of three capped Indian players.
Who will Chennai Super Kings look to use their RTM card on?
Dwayne Bravo, Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith, players who have played a major role in Chennai Super Kings' success over the past few seasons, are in the auction and the side will be looking to use their RTM card on two of these 3 players.
Bravo is one of the most successful all-rounders in the IPL with 1,238 runs and 122 wickets in 106 matches while McCullum and Smith form one of the most destructive opening pairs in the IPL.