All the eight IPL franchises released their final list of retained and released players on Friday. While some franchises are looking to revamp their squad in the upcoming IPL auction on December 19, other franchises are mostly looking to buy proper backups for their core group of players already retained. Each of the franchises have had their own preferences and thus, have varied budgets available after the retention period. Now, let’s have a look at how all the teams stack up when it comes to their budget availability and auction strategy.

Chennai Super Kings:

Players Retained Breakdown:

Total: 20

Overseas: 6

Available Slots:

Total: 5

Overseas: 2

Budget

Spent: 70.40 crores

Available: 14.60 cr

Retained players: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, M Vijay, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Monu Kumar, N Jagadeesan, Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi

Auction Strategy: CSK lack a power-hitter in their lower middle-order and they would go for at least two such players, one of whom could be an overseas recruit. They will need backup for their pace bowling department too which already consists of the likes of Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi and Shardul Thakur. Chris Morris could serve both the purposes of being a power-hitter and an overseas pacer. So, Chennai could go all guns out for him. When these two types of players are bought, CSK would like to recruit good domestic backups for their middle-order and as far as spinners are concerned, they have five of them in their squad and won’t be looking for anymore.

Mumbai Indians

Players Retained Breakdown:

Total: 18

Overseas Players: 6

Available Slots:

Total: 7

Overseas: 2

Budget

Spent: 71.95 crore

Available: 13.05 cr

Retained: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Kieran Pollard, Quinton de Kock, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga, Krunal Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Ishan Kishan, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aditya Tare, Sherfane Rutherford, Jayant Yadav.

Auction Strategy: Mumbai Indians have retained their match-winning all-rounders like Krunal and Hardik Pandya, and Kieron Pollard. Their first team pacers, spinners and top-order batsmen have been retained as well. Now, they would be eager to buy good domestic spinners and pacers. They would probably go for another quality overseas pacer considering Lasith Malinga’s injury history. They don’t have any backup openers in the side. So, the purchase of a quality overseas opener and other proven domestic names is on the cards as well.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Players Retained Breakdown:

Total: 14

Overseas: 4,

Available Slots

Total: 11

Overseas: 4

Budget

Spent: 49.35 crore

Available: 35.65 cr

Retained Players: Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Sandeep Warrier, Harry Gurney, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Siddhesh Lad, Rinku Singh, Prasidh Krishna

Auction Strategy: They have 11 slots available and a budget of over 35 crores. So, a well-thought plan will give them a chance to make a good squad this year. They will be hiring top-order batsmen in plenty as they have let Chris Lynn go. Overseas firepower is something they will go after. KKR need some good domestic middle-order batsmen as well to fill the gaps created by the likes of Robin Uthappa and others. Their pace department misfired last year but all of them are proven names. Hence, they have decided to retain their faith in them once again. And it doesn’t look like they would go for any reinforcement in the auction. The change in nature of the track at Eden Gardens means they won’t be eager to add any more spinners to their squad as well. KKR are also lacking all-rounders in their squad. Moreover, given by their auction history of interest in all-rounders, it is safe to say that they will go all guns out for them.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Players Retained Breakdown

Total: 13

Overseas: 2,

Available Slots:

Total: 12

Overseas: 6

Budget

Spent: 57.10 crore

Available: 27.90 cr

Retained Players: Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini.

Auction Strategy: RCB has 12 slots available and a decent budget of Rs. 27.90 Crores as well. They have freed up six slots for overseas players as well and that gives an idea about how they are going to approach the auction. Newly appointed coach Mike Hesson would be eager to buy quality overseas players to support the likes of Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers. A top-order overseas option, a couple of good all-rounders and an overseas death bowling specialist will be on top priority in their auction wishlist. Someone like Liam Livingstone would be RCB’s primary target considering his batting exploits in the T20 Blast since last year. We could see them going hard for Chris Morris considering his all-round abilities as well. They will look to add some good domestic pacers and a quality spinner to their squad as backup options too.

Delhi Capitals

Players Retained Breakdown:

Total: 14

Overseas: 3

Available Slots:

Total: 11

Overseas: 5

Budget:

Spent: 57.15 crore

Available: 27.85 cr

Retained Players: Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Kagiso Rabada, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane.

Auction Strategy: Delhi Capital’s available purse is quite similar to that of the Royal Challengers. They have five overseas slots and a total of 11 slots available. Their opening slot looks sorted with the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw and Ajinkya Rahane already there. But they would like to have a quality overseas opener as well. They won’t be looking for any reinforcements in the spin-bowling department as they already have four spinners but the Capitals will definitely look for both overseas and domestic backups for the pace bowling department. The middle-order is something the Capitals would heavily focus for the auction. There is quite a gap there with the departures of the likes of Colin Ingram, Hanuma Vihari and others. They would mainly target batsmen who can play spin well. That’s something they would give a lot of priority to considering the track at Kotla.

Kings XI Punjab

Players Retained Breakdown:

Total: 16

Overseas: 4

Available Slots

Total: 9

Overseas: 4

Budget

Spent: 42.30 crore

Available: 42.70 cr

Retained: KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, K Gowtham, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, M Ashwin, J Suchith, Harpreet Brar, and Darshan Nalkande.

Auction Strategy: Kings XI Punjab will go hard at the auction considering that they have the highest budget available among all franchises and just nine slots to fill. Their opening slot is sorted due to the presence of Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul. But they might still consider buying a backup option. The middle-order looks well poised with the likes of Nair, Sarfaraz, Pooran, Mandeep and a spin-bowling all-rounder in Gowtham already present. An overseas all-rounder is what they would engage in a battle for. There is no dearth of spinners and that is something they won’t go for but they look thin on pace bowling resources as they have let Andrew Tye and Sam Curran go.

Rajasthan Royals

Players Retained Breakdown

Total: 14

Overseas: 4

Available Slots

Total: 11

Overseas: 4

Budget

Spent: 56.10 crore

Available: 28.90 cr

Retained: Steve Smith (captain), Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Mahipal Lomror, Varun Aaron, Manan Vohra, Mayank Markande, Rahul Tewatia, Ankit Rajpoot.

Auction Strategy: With the departure of Ajinkya Rahane and Liam Livingstone, it becomes important for them to add a couple of quality openers to their roster. The Royals only have Jos Buttler and Manan Vohra to shoulder the top-order responsibilities at the moment. The middle-order looks well poised though, with the likes of Smith, Samson, Stokes and Parag. All they would look for now are good backups, both overseas and domestic. They have spinners in plenty after the trading in Mayank Markande and Rahul Tewatia. Hence, they won’t go after more in the auction. A domestic Indian all-rounder is also an option they would look for after trading Krishnappa Gowtham. Pace bowling department is the main concern as they have only Archer, Aaron and Rajpoot at the moment. They would look for plenty of overseas and Indian options to fill this department.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Players Retained Breakdown

Total: 18

Overseas: 6

Available Slots

Total: 7

Overseas: 2

Budget

Spent: 68 crore

Available: 17 cr

Retained: Kane Williamson, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Billy Stanlake, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan.

Auction Strategy: Just like Mumbai and Chennai, the Sunrisers have retained their core group of players as well. Their top-order, pace bowling and spin-bowling departments are well sorted with all of their first-team options and backups retained. All they would look to buy in the auction now are some good Indian domestic middle-order batsmen and a quality overseas pace-bowling all-rounder. And a purse of 17 crores is enough to get quality players for those roles.