How did all 10 teams fare in IPL Auction 2024? CSK, MI master-strategists; RCB, PBKS clueless, SRH's unique problem
Ahead of the IPL 2024 season, we take a look how each team has stacked up at the end of the riveting eight-hour auction session in Dubai...
A total of 72 players were handed a fresh Indian Premier League (IPL) contract on Tuesday, with the 10 teams splurging a combined amount of INR 230.45 crore at the mini-auction in Dubai. Recency bias, as it has always been, played a crucial role in determining the biggest paydays, and it was the ODI World Cup which played as a crucial factor. Pat Cummins (INR 20.5 crore) and Mitchell Starc (INR 24.75 crore) of the World Cup-winning Australia team earned a massive contract. The others included New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra, Australia batter Travis Head, South Africa allrounder Gerald Coetzee, and Sri Lanka quick Dilshan Madushankat, who all landed big IPL deals. Uncapped Indian players also earned big bucks at the auction with the likes of UP top-order batter Sameer Rizvi, Jharkhand wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra and Vidarbha middle-order batter Shubham Dubey dominating the chart.
Ahead of the IPL 2024 season, we take a look how each team has stacked up at the end of the riveting eight-hour auction session in Dubai...
ALSO READ: IPL Auction 2024, full list of sold and unsold players: 72 cricketers find takers, a whopping ₹230.45 crore spent
Chennai Super Kings
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Rachin Ravindra (INR 1.8 crore), Shardul Thakur (INR 4 crore), Daryl Mitchell (INR 14 crore), Sameer Rizvi (INR 8.4 crore), Mustafizur Rahman (INR 2 crore)
Players retained before auction: MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana.
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 1 crore
How did they fare at the auction: Their biggest requirement was a replacement for Ben Stokes and they pushed hard for Pat Cummins, going as far as INR 7.6 crore, but eventually managed to sign New Zealand allrounders Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra. Mitchell, who scored two World Cup centuries against India in the recently-concluded tournament, is a big-hitter, thus making him a perfect Chepauk material as head coach Stephen Fleming admitted later on Tuesday, meanwhile, Rachin could serve as a backup for Moeen Ali, who looked off-colour in the last season. Chennai also bought back bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur while also getting Mustafizur Rahman, who could be ideal with his cutters on the sluggish Chennai conditions.
The factor that CSK took care of was getting a replacement for Ambati Rayudu. While it was expected that the five-time winners would chase experienced India batters in Karun Nair and Manish Pandey, they opted for a smarter option in 20-year-old uncapped Indian Sameer Rizvi, who wreaked havoc in the UP T20 league earlier this year with 455 runs in nine innings, laced with two centuries, at a strike rate of 188.8.
Mumbai Indians
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Gerald Coetzee (INR 5 crore), Nuwan Thushara (INR 4.8 crore), Dilshan Madushanka (INR 4.6 crore), Mohammad Nabi (INR 1.5 crore), Shreyas Gopal (INR 20 lakh), Naman Dhir (INR 20 lakh), Anshul Kamboj (INR 20 lakh), Shivalik Sharma (INR 20 lakh)
Players retained before auction: Rohit Sharma, Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, N. Tilak Varma, Tim David, Vishnu Vinod, Arjun Tendulkar, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar Kartikeya, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Jason Behrendorff, Romario Shepherd (from LSG), Hardik Pandya (from GT)
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 1.05 crore
How did they fare at the auction: Look at their pace-bowling attack? Besides Jasprit Bumrah and Jason Behrendorff, they now have Sri Lanka's left-armer Dilshan Madushanka, who was among the top performers in the World Cup, and Gerald Coetzee of South Africa, who can even bat lower down the order. And if that wasn't enough, they added a surprise package in Nuwan Thushara from Sri Lanka, a wannabe Lasith Malinga. But where they faltered was not going hard on finding an overseas spinner to accompany Piyush Chawla. They however picked Shreyas Gopal.
Gujarat Titans
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Spencer Johnson (INR 10 crore), Shahrukh Khan (INR 7.4 crore), Umesh Yadav (INR 5.8 crore), Robin Minz (INR 3.6 crore), Sushant Mishra (INR 2.2 crore), Kartik Tyagi (INR 60 lakh), Azmatullah Omarzai (INR 50 lakh), Manav Suthar (INR 20 lakh)
Players retained before auction: David Miller, Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Kane Williamson, Abhinav Manohar, B. Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan, Joshua Little, Mohit Sharma
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 7.85 crore
How did they fare at the auction: Well they couldn't have found a like-for-like replacement for Hardik Pandya for sure, but the newly-introduced Impact Player rule will definitely allow them to compensate for that gap. They in fact roped in Azmatullah Omarzai at an uncontested price, who was one of Afghanistan's standout performer in the ODI World Cup.
Gujarat had the purse, and thus went far for Mitchell Starc before backing down to allow Kolkata Knight Riders to acquire them for record 24.75 crore fee. The Aussie would have been a better replacement for Joshua Little, but the Titans instead went for another Australian, an uncapped left-arm seamer in Spencer Johnson. They also found a back for Mohammed Shami in the experienced Umesh Yadav and young Kartik Tyagi, while they stacked their middle-order with a power-hitting option in Shahrukh Khan, who can also bowl now with his off-spin variety. The 2022 champions however missed out on getting an able replacement for Wriddhiman Saha.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Travis Head (Rs. 6.80 crore), Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs. 1.5 crore), Pat Cummins (Rs. 20.50 crore), Jaydev Unadkat (Rs. 1.60 crore), Akash Singh (Rs. 20 lakh), Jhathavedh Subramanyan (Rs. 20 lakh).
Players retained before auction: Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed (from RCB).
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 3.2 crore
How did they fare at the auction: If more then anything, their acquisitions on Tuesday will kind of leave a happy headache over their four overseas slots, but they do not have a strong leadership core with the addition of Australia's ODI World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins, for a massive 20.5 crore bid, to the existing group of Aiden Markram, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mayank Agarwal. They also acquired Travis Head, who could amend their poor starts while Wanindu Hasaranga was an absolute steal deal. SRH do have an almost complete XI to count upon for the 2024 season.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Present squad strength: 23 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Mitchell Starc (INR 24.75 crore), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (INR 2 crore), Sherfane Rutherford (INR 1.5 crore), Gus Atkinson (INR 1 crore), KS Bharat (INR 50 lakh), Chetan Sakariya (INR 50 lakh), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (INR 20 lakh), Ramandeep Singh (INR 20 lakh), Manish Pandey (INR 50 lakh), Sakib Hussain (INR 20 lakh)
Players retained before auction: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer, Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Player slots available: 2 (0)
Purse remaining: INR 1.35 crore
How did they fare at the auction: After shelling out an eye-popping amount of 24.75 crore on one player, in what was their second acquisition, roping in Mitchell Starc after Chetan Sakariya, KKR seemed to carried themselves better through the auction in getting some good back-up players - Mujeeb Ur Rahman for Sunil Narine, KS Bharat for Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sherfane Rutherford for Andre Russell. They also roped in Gus Atkinson, English right-arm pace bowler, late in the auction to add some depth to their bowling line-up as well.
Where Kolkata missed out was working on their batting depth. While their signings show that they immensely rely on Gurbaz to perform well as an opener, they will have to trust the unproven abilities of Ramandeep Singh at No. 7, who scored 77 runs in 36 balls at a strike rate of over 200 across three innings at that position and lower at the 2023 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Alzarri Joseph (Rs. 11.50 crore), Yash Dayal (Rs. 5 crore), Tom Curran (Rs. 1.5 crore), Lockie Ferguson (Rs. 2 crore), Swapnil Singh (Rs. 20 lakh), Saurav Chauhan (Rs. 20 lakh).
Players retained before auction: Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar (from SRH), Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green (from MI).
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 2.85 crore
How did they fare at the auction: Their trade deal for all-rounder Cameron Green left them vulnerable in their desire to chase Cummins and Starc. They were desperate, as evident from their bid of 20.25 crore for Cummins despite having a purse of 23.15, and hence probably why they didn't raise their paddle for Starc. They however managed to rope in Alzarri Joseph, Lockie Ferguson, Tom Curran and even Yash Dayal, but none are an ideal replacement for death-over specialist Harshal Patel. They also failed to find a substitute for Hasaranga, thus leaving their bowling unit fragile.
Lucknow Super Giants
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Shivam Mavi (Rs. 6.40 crore), Arshin Kulkarni (Rs. 20 lakh), M. Siddharth (Rs. 2.40 crore), Ashton Turner (Rs. 1 crore), David Willey (Rs. 2 crore), Mohd. Arshad Khan (Rs. 20 lakh).
Players retained before auction: KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal (from RR), Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham.
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 0.95 crore
How did they fare at the auction: Given their budget constraints, a desirable auction against the likes of CSK, SRH and Gujarat, all of whom had north of INR 30 crore in their purse, was always out of the question. The addition of Paddikal through trade seemed a likeable option as it paves a way for KL Rahul to fulfil his middle-order batting hopes. But lack of experienced Indian pace options stands as a major concern, leaving bulk of the weight of their expectation on Mark Wood.
Rajasthan Royals:
Present squad strength: 22 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Rovman Powell (Rs. 7.4 crore), Shubham Dubey (Rs. 5.80 crore), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Rs. 40 lakh), Abid Mushtaq (Rs. 20 lakh), Nandre Burger (Rs. 50 lakh).
Players retained before auction: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Avesh Khan (from LSG).
Player slots available: 3 (0)
Purse remaining: INR 0.2 crore
How did they fare at the auction: They walked in with eight slots to fill with INR 14.5 crore in hand, and walked out with the smallest overall squad off 22 members and just INR 20 lakh in hand. Now that speaks volumes of what unfolded at the RR desk on Tuesday. Of the total amount, INR 13.2 crore was spent on just their first two buys in Rovman Powell and Shubham Dubey, in a bid to solidify their middle-order. They also added back-ups for Trent Boult and Jos Buttler respectively in Nandre Burger and Tom Kohler-Cadmore. But where they missed out was getting a seasoned all-rounder.
Delhi Capitals
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Harry Brook (Rs. 4 crore), Tristan Stubbs (Rs. 50 lakh), Ricky Bhui (Rs. 20 lakh), Kumar Kushagra (Rs. 7.20 crore), Rasikh Dar (Rs. 20 lakh), Jhye Richardson (Rs. 5 crore), Sumit Kumar (Rs. 1 crore), Shai Hope (Rs. 75 lakh), Swastik Chhikara (Rs. 20 lakh).
Players retained before auction: Rishabh Pant, Pravin Dubey, David Warner, Vicky Ostwal, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje, Abishek Porel, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Lungi Ngidi, Lalit Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Mitchell Marsh, Ishant Sharma, Yash Dhull, Mukesh Kumar.
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 9.9 crore
How did they fare at the auction: If anything, their auction has clearly stated that Rishabh Pant, if available, would only be playing as a batter. Delhi on Tuesday bagged as many as five wicketkeepers - two overseas in Tristan Stubbs and Shai Hope, and three Indian uncapped in Kumar Kushagra, Ricky Bhui and Sumit Kumar. They also roped in Harry Brook to strengthen their batting, with the hope that he performs better than what he managed last season at SRH. DC laos managed to get Jhye Richardson as a back-up for revcovering Anrich Nortje. Delhi however seem to lack batting depth while they will be expecting Prithvi Shaw to come good, amid no back-up Indian openers.
Punjab Kings
Present squad strength: 25 (overseas 8)
Players bought: Harshal Patel (Rs. 11.75 crore), Chris Woakes (Rs. 4.20 crore), Ashutosh Sharma (Rs. 20 lakh), Vishwanath Pratap Singh (Rs. 20 lakh), Shashank Singh (Rs. 20 lakh), Tanay Thyagarajann (Rs. 20 lakh), Prince Choudhary (Rs. 20 lakh), Rilee Rossouw (Rs. 8 crore).
Players retained before auction: Shikhar Dhawan, Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh.
Player slots available: 0
Purse remaining: INR 4.15 crore
How did they fare at the auction: What happened at the fag-end of the auction over the buying and trying to un-buy Shashank Singh would leave a sour taste in the mouth for PBKS. They did manage to have a decent outing in Dubai having added Harshal Patel to their squad and strengthening their pace line-up which already boasts of Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh. In the second half of the auction, they also added Rilee Rossouw and Chris Woakes as mere backup options. What they however missed out was getting back Shahrukh Khan, who, in the first place, shouldn't have been let go. They chased for the uncapped India star far enough, but probably did not go the distance in a bid to not pay more than what Shahrukh was roped in for in the previous season. But they anyhow went big on Rossouw, who will not likely bag many first-XI choices as compared to the Tamil Nadu batter who would be a certain first-choice pick.
