IPL 2019: What the teams are looking for in the auction

The IPL auction is round the corner, and the teams have already kept their plans and back-ups ready for the auction. The auction this time will just be a 1-day affair in Jaipur on the 18th of December. The teams after retaining their players have limited resources left to fill in the remaining slots, and make a complete balanced side. This auction is going to be a challenging one, with the doubt of the availability of big players due to the World Cup that follows the IPL.

It will be very interesting to see how the teams go about the auction, and which team will be able to succeed in the strategies they have laid out so far.

Based on the list of retained players, here's what the teams might be looking at, come the auction.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK)

CSK, the defending champions, have retained almost the whole team this time. The message is loud and clear, that the team is built too good to release a core player. Also, because the average age of the team is above 30, this team has players that have stopped playing for their country. Hence, they don't have much of a headache of the World Cup, as the other teams do. Their playing XI last year was as good as any, and the so-called veteran side of IPL 2018, defied all predictions of health and fitness by putting up a top-show and lifting the trophy

Expect the same XI from the yellow dug-out in 2019

For the auction in December, CSK has 8.4 Cr left, and can buy a maximum of 2 players, both being Indians. There is going to be a huge scarcity of Indians at the auction, especially of those who are or have played international cricket.

So the team from the south might like to invest in someone local who knows the Chepauk track well. It is going to be an almost idle auction for the yellow table in Jaipur, this winter. There is no real reason for Dhoni's men to tinker around with their playing XI, and except minimal changes in the names that take the field, from the 2018 IPL.

Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals (previously Delhi Daredevils) has a history of releasing most of their players and starting afresh in every auction. However, this tactic has clearly yielded no good for the Delhi franchise. They have restructured their teams a lot of times, changed coaches, logo, to improve their chances, but in vain.

In the last auction, Delhi was very aggressive in bidding. Delhi had retained young guns, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant along with Chris Morris. Overall, at the end of the auction, the Delhi dugout looked a formidable squad of 24.

Delhi Capitals will hope that the change in name changes their fortunes

But the change in captain, coach and players did not add along for Delhi as they finished last once again. Gambhir resigned as captain, midway into the tournament, and a not so experienced Shreyas Iyer was handed over the role of skipper. Under Iyer too, Delhi could not revive their fortunes.

So, Delhi Capitals has once again decided to stay true to its tactic of clearing the unwanted stuff before entering the auction. Out of the 24 players, 10 have been released. These include the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Mohammed Shami and Glenn Maxwell among others. Releasing 10 players means that the auction is going to be quite a busy one for the Delhi franchise.

They need to fill up 10 slots with 7 Indians and 3 overseas players. Something worth noting here is that Delhi has strengthened its top order by securing the services of Shikhar Dhawan from SRH.

This time, Delhi has changed their name from Daredevils to Capitals, expecting a change in fortunes. Come the auction, Delhi will have to go out hunting for a reliable and strong middle order batsman, who is a clean hitter of a ball and can finish the game. Also needed is a fast bowling all-rounder as a back-up for Chris Morris.

Delhi will also be looking at an Indian pacer, a replacement for Shami. Another search is a good spinner who will accompany Amit Mishra and Jayant Yadav, and come in handy, in case the other 2 are injured.

Kings XI Punjab (KXIP)

Kings XI Punjab has a story much like the team from Delhi. They have never laid their hands on the trophy, and have seldom found themselves in the playoffs. 2014 has been the best season for the Punjab franchise so far, where they finished as table toppers, and went on to complete their season as the second-best team.

Kings have struggled to find the right start in most seasons and failed to convert the good start in others. Last season, Kings XI Punjab had only retained Axar Patel and built a completely new team. Their top picks were Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul and Aaron Finch.

The Kings will try to stand true to their name and hope to rule the next season.

Ravichandran was named captain for the side. The team was off to a great start with KL Rahul in some amazing form. However, the team kept crumbling in the games to come and finally, ended second last on the points table. For the next season, Punjab has retained only a few important names, who proved their mettle in the last season.

These names include their captain Ashwin, along with KL Rahul, Chris Gayle,and Mujeeb Ur Rahman among some others. The team has tried to resolve their middle order woes by trading Marcus Stoinis for Mandeep Singh with RCB. However, there is a lot of work pending for the Kings. They need a couple of fast pacers, as all they have now is Ankit Rajpoot and Tye. They will be on the hunt for a tried and tested fast bowler who can handle pressure situation. They have a total purse of 36.2 Cr to buy a maximum of 11 Indians and 4 Overseas players.

The Punjab dug-out needs to buy a spinner, a good batting all-rounder, atleast 2 more spinners and a wicket-keeper as a back-up for Rahul. A backup opener will also be something Punjab would be looking out for. They have shredded away major forces and now will have to refill it with firepower that can help improve their chances in this IPL. Money won't be an issue for the Punjab table in the auction on the 18th of December.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

Kolkata Knight Riders is a team that finished 3rd in the last season of the IPL. It has won the tournament twice, in 2012 and 2014. KKR has that tendency of revamping the team completely, every few years. They did it in 2011 when they let go Sourav Ganguly and brought in Gautam Gambhir as the captain.

The same tactic was repeated in the last auction as well as they let go Gambhir and bought Dinesh Karthik as the captain. At the start of the auction, KKR had 3 players, and all 3 were overseas players. KKR had retained Chris Lynn, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine. They built the team around these three players and could manage only 17 players in the amount they had.

Kolkata had done exceedingly well in the last season under Karthik

Looking at the roster of KKR, everyone could identify the loop-holes. Even though they had very strong XI players who could win matches quite easily, they clearly lacked the back-ups. The team was short on players and everyone was sure that they will not be able to make it to the playoffs.

However, KKR was quite lucky that injuries did not hurt their fortune, and riding on Dinesh Karthik's excellent captaincy, KKR not only managed to reach the playoffs, but also win the eliminator to finish 3rd overall.

Among the players retained from last year, the batting looks in good shape to take the field next season. The top order consisting of Narine, Lynn, Uthappa, Rana and Karthik, KKR can only dream of a bad day on the field. After this solid top order, Russell will follow. 6 batsmen done, KKR don't have any back-up for these again. So they would like to spend some funds on buying a good opener and a middle order floater.

In the 6 batsmen mentioned above, KKR already has covered their keeper and a quota of 8 overs. This kind of a balance is something that KKR boasted of in the previous season as well. The remaining 5 players include 3 seamers and 2 spinners, which are again already available for selection. Overall, at the auction, KKR can buy 12 players, 7 of them being Indian.

The voids that remained to be filled are the extra opener, middle order floater, an experienced fast bowler, and another spinner, in case Kuldeep doesn't play owing to the world cup. If Kolkata manages to fill these voids in the 15.2 Cr they have to spend, they could make a formidable side for the next IPL.

Mumbai Indians (MI)

3-time champions Mumbai Indians missed the mark last year by finishing 5th. Mumbai has been playing with some big names in their roster, for a number of years. And somehow, they manage to add a couple more in every auction.

Names like Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard, and the Pandya brothers are names that are associated with MI for more than 4 years now. Last year, Mumbai went into the auction with 3 players retained. They had decided to build a team around their captain Rohit Sharma, pacer Bumrah, and their all-rounder Hardik Pandya. With Pollard and Krunal Pandya being their right-to-match cards, the core of the Mumbai franchise was back in the dug-out.

Mumbai will be willing to continue winning the title on alternate years

The team owned by the richest family in the country, went on to pick a hard-hitting opener, Evin Lewis and brought in Ishan Kishan as their keeper. Players like JP Duminy, Mustafizur Rahman, Ben Cutting, and Pat Cummins only added to the star power of the team.

The boys in blue and golden have won the IPL on alternate occasions in 2013, 2015 and 2017. Whether they will continue this pattern and win again this time, depends largely on how they perform at the auction.

Mumbai have released Mustafizur, Duminy and Cummins from their squad. This makes their bowling look a little weak. However, they have their 20 overs covered in Bumrah, Adam Milne, Pandya brothers and McClenaghan.

Even after these 20 overs, Mumbai is still left with Jason Behrendorff, Ben Cutting, Mayank Markande and Rahul Chahar in the reserves. So, overall, fast bowling does not look like a problem for Mumbai.

However, they would like to include a known spinner in their side, probably a leg-break bowler. With the bowling sorted, it was the batting collapses that hurt Mumbai last season. To improve on that front, Mumbai have brought in Quinton de Kock from RCB.

However, Mumbai will need to strengthen its middle order. With a good quality middle order batsman and a leg-spinner added to the roster, Mumbai can well continue with their pattern of bringing home the trophy every alternate year.

Rajasthan Royals (RR)

Rajasthan was another team apart from CSK who made a comeback into the tournament after facing a 2-year ban. This team, known for winning the first edition of the tournament, went into the auction with full throttle. RR had the top 2 bids in the auction as they bought the services of Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat. With players like Rahul Tripathi, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith and Sanju Samson, RR had a great top order.

Further into the auction, Rajasthan bought Jos Buttler, who along with Stokes were the anchors of the middle order. Darcy Short was also included into the squad. After Smith was banned from playing the IPL, Short got to play in the XI.

RR came back to IPL after 2 years and finished 3rd

The bowling was also good with Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jofra Archer and Ben Laughlin. Overall the team who wore the blue and pink jersey was a decent and competitive one. This year however, it is going to be a different story. Rajasthan have released Short, Laughlin and even Jaydev Unadkat.

Rajasthan has their top order set for the next season, as they have retained Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi and Jos Buttler. The middle order has Stokes and Binny, Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal.

The team management might like to add another middle-order batsman into the squad in the auction. The bowling department has Dhawal Kulkarni, Ish Sodhi and Jofra Archer. Here too, the lack of an experienced spinner is what Rajasthan will have to address.

So, in the 9 slots available, RR needs a middle order batsman, a couple of spinners and a fast bowler. If they can manage this in 20.95 Cr, RR will also be a competitive side.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

Royal Challengers Bangalore is the most hyped about and talked about team of the IPL in every season. This is because of the big names that play for the team. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are names that definitely deserve to make the buzz for their team.

These 2 players have been a part of the RCB setup for many years and have been performing consistently. But with these 2 modern greats of the game too, RCB has not won the cup even once. RCB has had some great squads, which have been worthy of winning the title, but to no avail.

Star power has not helped Bangalore win the title

Players like Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock, Tim Southee and many more have played for this franchise. RCB has always been known to be the most star-studded team. This year, RCB has let go many big names like Brendon McCullum, Chris Woakes, Quinton de Kock and Mandeep Singh. Now, for the 2019 season of the IPL, Bangalore has 10 slots available, 8 Indians and 2 Overseas.

The top order of RCB is decent with Parthiv Patel, Kohli and de Villiers. However, RCB will look for a good opener, so that they can go with Kohli at no.3 and Ab to follow. Marcus Stoinis was traded from KXIP in exchange for Mandeep Singh, and he will follow Mr.360. However, after that there is a void of another middle order batsman which RCB will have to address. The bowling unit is pretty decent this time with Washington Sunder and Chahal being the spinners and Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee and Nathan Coulter Nile being the 3 pacers. There is some back up too in Pawan Negi, Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Mohammed Siraj, and 2 uncapped pacers. The bowling unit seems all set.

In the auction, what RCB needs to hunt for is a decent Indian opener, an Indian middle order floater, and a fast bowling all-rounder, in case Stoinis does not fire. 18.15 Cr would be more than enough to fund these purchases and make a good team ready to fight in the next IPL.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)

The runners-up from the previous edition, the team for Hyderabad has been on a roll for the past 3-4 years. They have been performing quite consistently and always succeed in finding the correct balance in their squad.

It was because of this balance that SRH reached the finals even in the absence of their captain and Australian opener David Warner. Kane Williamson was the captain and he led the team very well. Players like Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shakib Al Hasan and Manish Pandey can win you matches individually.

Warner returns to SRH who will miss Dhawan this year

With Warner returning this year, SRH will have their former captain up at the top of the order. However, the pair of David-Dhawan won't be a part of the Orange army as Dhawan was traded to Delhi Daredevils team (Now Delhi Capitals), in exchange for 3 players, Shahbaz Nadeem, Abhishek Sharma and Vijay Shankar. With Nadeem being an experienced player in the IPL, it only adds to the already strong spin resources that the Hyderabad team possesses.

Following the 2 openers will be a formidable middle order studded with Williamson, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan. The lower order is also very strong, and the bowling of SRH had been the highlight of the entire season last year. Players like Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, Sandeep Sharma and Basil Thampi proved that they could defend any small total on the given day. And the addition of Nadeem will only make it stronger.

SRH has a total purse of 9.7 Cr at their disposal to buy a maximum of 3 Indians and 2 Overseas players. However, all that Hyderabad desperately needs is an opener and another batsman. All the other bids at the auction will only be to build up a strong back-up for the star players who will take the field.