A break up of the eight IPL squads at the end of the first day of the 2018 player auction, and a quick look at the gaps the teams need to fill on Sunday
ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jan-2018.0:40
‘Very pleased with the way the auction has gone so far’ – Laxman
Chennai Super KingsTotal players: 11
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 7
Number of overseas players they can buy: 4
Purse remaining: INR 17 crores (USD 2,656,250)
Openers: Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson
Middle-order batsmen: Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu
Wicketkeepers: MS Dhoni
Allrounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo
Wristspinners: Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir
Fingerspinners: Harbhajan Singh
Fast bowlers:
What CSK need on Sunday: Another opener, to ensure they aren’t forced to keep picking the same two overseas openers. Fast bowlers – they only have Watson and Bravo at present, and Watson isn’t the bowler he used to be, while Bravo is more of a change-of-pace bowler than fast these days. They need several proper fast bowlers.They might also want a few younger players, to bring the average down below 30! They haven’t bought a single uncapped player yet.Delhi DaredevilsTotal players: 15
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 3
Number of overseas players they can buy: 3
Purse remaining: INR 12.3 crores (USD 1,921,875)
Openers: Colin Munro, Jason Roy, Gautam Gambhir, Prithvi Shaw
Middle-order batsmen: Shreyas Iyer, Glenn Maxwell
Wicketkeeper: Rishabh Pant
Allrounders: Chris Morris, Vijay Shankar
Wristspinners: Amit Mishra, Rahul Tewatia
Fingerspinners:
Fast Bowlers: Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan
What Daredevils need on Sunday: A fingerspinner, unless they are counting Glenn Maxwell as one. Another allrounder, because Chris Morris and Vijay Shankar are the only genuine ones at present. An overseas batsman who is a reliable performer in Indian conditions – Munro and Roy are untested in Indian conditions and Maxwell was hit or miss last season. And a back-up wicketkeeper for Rishabh Pant and another overseas fast bowler.Kings XI PunjabTotal players: 10
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 8
Number of overseas players they can buy: 5
Purse remaining: INR 21.9 crores (USD 3,421,875)
Openers: Aaron Finch, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal
Middle-order batsmen: Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh, David Miller
Wicketkeepers:
Allrounders: Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis
Wristspinners:
Fingerspinners: R Ashwin
Fast bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot
What KXIP need on Sunday: They bid a lot on Saturday, but ended up with only ten players. They don’t have a specialist wicketkeeper – KL Rahul can keep but wasn’t very safe for RCB. And they have no specialist bowlers apart from R Ashwin and Ankit Rajpoot, so they need a lot more of those. They also have only three overseas players, so they could use a few more across skillsets.Kolkata Knight RidersTotal players: 12
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 6
Number of overseas players they can buy: 4
Purse remaining: INR 7.6 crores (USD 1,187,500)
Openers: Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa
Middle-order batsmen: Shubman Gill, Ishank Jaggi, Nitish Rana
Wicketkeepers: Dinesh Karthik
Allrounders: Andre Russell
Wristspinners: Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav
Fingerspinners: Sunil Narine
Fast bowlers: Mitchell Starc, Kamlesh Nagarkoti
What KKR need on Sunday: Bargain buys. On Saturday, they had only four players in the squad by the time they exhausted half their purse. And then they bought two more millionaires. So KKR have INR 7.6 crores to spend and at least six players to buy to make up the minimum squad strength stipulated by the IPL. And they have holes to fill: back-up opener, a quality capped middle-order batsmen, more fast bowlers, and more international players.0:53
Price of players drop as they get older – Ponting
Mumbai IndiansTotal players: 9
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 9
Number of overseas players they can buy: 5
Purse remaining: INR 15.8 crore (USD 2,468,750)
Openers:Middle-order batsmen: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav
Wicketkeepers: Ishan Kishan
Allrounders: Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya
Wristspinners:
Fingerspinners:
Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Mustafizur Rahman, Pat Cummins
What Mumbai need on Sunday: Mumbai began the auction with the smallest purse (along with CSK and Daredevils). They bought only a few players, and while only Krunal Pandya was a millionaire, none of the others were especially cheap. Their most inexpensive player was Mustafizur Rahman at INR 2.2 crore. So they have only INR 15.8 crore to buy at least nine players and fill significant holes: they have no openers (unless Rohit Sharma wants to open), no specialist spinners, no back-up keeper, few specialist batsmen, and few fast bowlers.Rajasthan RoyalsTotal players: 9
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 9
Number of overseas players they can buy: 3
Purse remaining: INR 23.5 crore (USD 3,671,875)
Openers: Ajinkya Rahane, D’Arcy Short, Rahul Tripathi
Middle-order batsmen: Steven Smith, Sanju Samson
Wicketkeepers: Jos Buttler
Allrounders: Ben Stokes, Stuart Binny, Jofra Archer
Wristspinners:
Fingerspinners:
Fast bowlers:
What Royals need on Sunday: Royals have five overseas players and only four Indians. They have four all-rounders, two of which are part-time, and absolutely no specialist bowlers (Stokes and Archer can bowl four overs each though). They also have only three Indian batsmen. So they need several more Indian batsmen, a whole lot of bowlers (especially spinners) and a back-up keeper for Buttler.Royal Challengers BangaloreTotal players: 14
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 4
Number of overseas players they can buy: 2
Purse remaining: INR 15.85 crore (USD 2,476,562)
Openers: Brendon McCullum, Manan Vohra
Middle-order batsmen: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan
Wicketkeepers: Quinton de Kock
Allrounders: Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Chris Woakes
Wristspinners: Yuzvendra Chahal
Fingerspinners:
Fast bowlers: Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Aniket Choudhary, Navdeep Saini
What RCB need on Sunday: Indian batsmen, because they have only three in the squad. An Indian allrounder, because all of theirs are overseas. They’d like another Indian spinner – they have only two spinners in the squad at present, and an overseas fast bowler. Their overseas batting and all-round contingent looks solid.Sunrisers HyderabadTotal players: 16
Minimum number of players they need to buy: 2
Number of overseas players they can buy: 3
Purse remaining: INR 7.95 crores (USD 1,242,187)
Openers: David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan
Middle-order batsmen: Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson
Wicketkeepers: Wriddhiman Saha, Ricky Bhui
Allrounders: Shakib Al Hasan, Carlos Brathwaite, Yusuf Pathan, Deepak Hooda
Wristspinners: Rashid Khan
Fingerspinners:
Fast Bowlers: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan
What Sunrisers need on Sunday: They have the largest squad at present, and most bases covered. Three of their allrounders can bowl fingerspin. They would like another Indian batsman to give the selection flexibility, but what they really need is a batsman that can go berserk at the finish. Brathwaite could, but he’s average against spin. They also need an overseas quick.