IPL Auction 2019: What will be the agenda of each franchise?
There are still about 4 months left for the IPL to kickstart but the excitement for the 12th season of the cash-rich league has already started as the teams are getting ready for the auction which is to take place in the month of December.
The franchises have already released their list of retained and released players and are now busy making plans to build a squad which is capable of winning the silverware. Here we look at what each IPL franchise will be wanting from the auction of IPL-12.
#1 Delhi Daredevils
Retained: Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Manjot Kalra, Colin Munro, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Sandeep Lamichhane, Trent Boult
Released: Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Junior Dala, Liam Plunkett, Mohammed Shami, Sayan Ghosh, Daniel Christian, Glenn Maxwell, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Naman Ojha
Traded: Shikhar Dhawan from SRH for Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem.
DD currently has a 15 member squad and will want to add a few more players before the start of the season. Starting from the priorities, the Daredevils would want an experienced middle order batsman who can partner the young duo of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.
Delhi will also seek an experienced Indian fast bowler as their domestic pace department comprises of only Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel. They will also look for a wicketkeeper-batsman as a backup for Pant and a spinner who can replace Shahbaz Nadeem as the partner of Amit Mishra since Jayant Yadav and Rahul Tewatia looks out of favour and Lamichhane is too young. They would further also want a few all-rounders having released Glenn Maxwell and Dan Christian before the auctions.
Suggested Players-Jaydev Unadkat, Axar Patel, Luke Ronchi, Carlos Brathwaite
Salary cap available: 25.50 crore
Available slots: 10; Indian 7, Overseas 3
#2 Sunrisers Hyderabad
Retained: Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, David Warner, Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan
Released: Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha, Chris Jordan, Carlos Brathwaite, Alex Hales, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan
Traded: Shikhar Dhawan to Delhi Daredevils for Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem
From the auctions, SRH would most importantly want a replacement for Dhawan who can partner David Warner at the top as the likes of Shreevats Goswami had failed earlier when pushed up the order. Buying an opener will also allow Williamson to bat down and strengthen the middle order.
They would also look for a wicketkeeper-batsman as they have only Goswami currently in their ranks having released Saha already. Last year the middle order was a problem for the Sunrisers as the likes of Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan couldn't live up to the hype. So they will be targeting a few batsmen to fill the void in that position.
Otherwise, the SRH team looks pretty settled with the likes of Rashid Khan and Nadeem in their spin attack, Shakib and Mohammed Nabi as all-rounders and a host of fast bowlers.
Suggested Players: Akshdeep Nath, Naman Ojha, Colin Ingram, Manoj Tiwary
Salary cap available: 9.70 crore
Available slots: 5; Indian 3, Overseas 2