IPL Auction 2020: Team-wise analysis of likely strategies and potential acquisitions
A total of 332 players will go under the hammer at the IPL 2020 Auction on 19 December in Kolkata.
The final list comprises of 186 Indian players of whom 19 are capped, apart from 143 overseas players and 3 players from Associate Nations. Most of the franchises have decided to persist with their core, so a maximum of 73 players can be acquired at the auction.
Also see – BPL Points Table
With a mega auction looming in 2021, the teams would possibly prefer makeshift solutions for their existing combinations this time around instead of investing in long-term plans.
Let us look at each of the eight franchises and their potential acquisitions at the auction:
Chennai Super Kings
Retained: MS Dhoni [c], Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis*, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shane Watson*, Dwayne Bravo*, Kedar Jadhav, Lungi Ngidi*, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner*, Monu Kumar, N Jagadeesan, Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir*, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif.
Released: Mohit Sharma, Sam Billings, David Willey, Scott Kuggeleijn, Dhruv Shorey, Chaitanya Bishnoi
Available Auction Purse: INR 14.60 crore
Available Slots: 5 (Indian 3, Overseas 2)
Auction Strategy
CSK have believed in continuity since the inception of the league, and the story is no different for IPL 2020. Having retained as many as 20 players, their squad is virtually complete.
They have, however, released Mohit Sharma, Sam Billings and David Willey, and would need a backup Indian seamer, overseas batsman and an overseas seamer to plug the respective gaps. The Super Kings would also look for some young Indian batsmen.
Potential Acquisitions: Jaydev Unadkat, Andrew Tye, Ben Laughlin, Hanuma Vihari, Rahul Tripathi, Shahrukh Khan, Barinder Sran, Tom Banton, Alex Carey, Sam Curran, Lendl Simmons, Jalaj Saxena