The player auction for the 12th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was held on December 18 in Jaipur. Here are final squads of the eight participating teams.
The defending champions had retained a bulk of their squad and purchased just two players in the auction including pacer Mohit Sharma, a key member of the side in previous seasons, and Ruturaj Gaikwad, a Maharashtra batsman.
Mohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad
R Gaikwad, MS Dhoni (wk), Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, M Vijay, Sam Billings (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Dhruv Shorey, N Jagadeesan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, David Willey, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Kedar Jadhav, C Bishnoi, Mitchell Santner, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Shardul Thakur, Monu Kumar
The former Delhi Daredevils, renamed to Delhi Capitals by the new owners, retained 14 players and acquired Shikhar Dhawan during the transfer window from Sunrisers Hyderabad. They had released Glenn Maxwell, Jason Roy and Liam Plunkett from the last year’s squad. This year, they filled in the gaps with able replacements in power-hitting and pace bowling including the likes of Keemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Colin Ingram, Hanuma Vihari and Ishant Sharma among others.
Ankush Bains (wk), Hanuma Vihari, Jalaj Saxena, Keemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Colin Ingram, Axar Patel, Bandaru Ayyappa, Nathu Singh, Ishant Sharma
Ankush Bains, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Prithvi Shaw, Colin Munro, Jalaj Saxena, Keemo Paul, Sherfane Rutherford, Colin Ingram, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Amit Mishra, Rahul Tewatia, Jayant Yadav, Sandeep Lamichhane, Bandaru Ayyappa, Nathu Singh, Ishant Sharma, Avesha Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult
Kings XI Punjab retained just 10 players from their 2018 squad and went in to reinforce their middle order in the auction. They had released Yuvraj Singh, Manoj Tiwary, Axar Patel and Mohit Sharma. They secured Mandeep Singh via a transfer while focussed on lower order power hitters and bowlers in the auction. They brought in Aussie Moises Henriques, Sam Curran (costliest international players at the auction), explosive batsman Nicholas Pooran and a mystery spinner in Varun Chakaravarthy. Hardus Vilojen and Mohammad Shami will strengthen the pace attack.
Simran Singh (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Harpreet Brar, Agnivesh Ayachi, Darshan Nalkande, Sam Curran, Varun Chakaravarthy, Moises Henriques, Murugan Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Vilojen, Mohammad Shami
Simran Singh (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Nicholas Pooran (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Agnivesh Ayachi, Darshan Nalkande, Sam Curran, Varun Chakaravarthy, Moises Henriques, Murugan Ashwin, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ravichandran Ashwin, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Vilojen, Mohammad Shami, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot
Read: Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy snared for $1.2 million by Kings XI Punjab
Kolkata Knight Riders have a squad strength of 13 going in to the IPL auction, with a lot of spots to be cemented. Following the trend of surprise picks including Shrikant Mundhe and Nikhil Naikm, Anrich Nortje and Joe Denly.
They also picked Kiwi pacer Lockie Ferguson, and went into an intense tussle for West Indian Carlos Brathwaite, snaring him for INR5 Crore.
Joe Denly, Nikhil Naik (wk), Shrikant Mundhe, Carlos Brathwaite, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Harry Gurney, Anrich Nortje, Lockie Ferguson
Joe Denly, Nikhil Naik (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Robin Uthappa (wk), Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Shrikant Mundhe, Carlos Brathwaite, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Harry Gurney, Anrich Nortje, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkot
Yuvraj Singh was sold for 1CR to Mumbai Indians ©Cricingif
Mumbai went into the auction with a squad strength of 18. They had acquired Quinton de Kock from the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the trading window. Their two major investments were Lasith Malinga and Yuvraj Singh. While Malinga will probably slot in place of Mustafizur Rahman, who was released, Yuvraj might struggle for playing time.
Yuvraj Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Pankaj Jaswal, Rasikh Dar, Barinder Sran, Lasith Malinga
Yuvraj Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad, Aditya Tare (wk), Evin Lewis, Quinton de Kock (wk), Pankaj Jaswal, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Ankul Roy, Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar, Rasikh Dar, Barinder Sran, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Jason Behrendorff
Read: Does Jasprit Bumrah receive the acknowledgement in red-ball cricket he deserves?
Rajasthan Royals headlined with the biggest buy of the auction in Jaydev Unadkat, bagging him for INR8.4 Crore. They also added two other pace options in Oshane Thomas and Varun Aaron. With Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and possibly Jofra Archer available for only a part of the 2019 season, they brought in Ashton Turner and Liam Livingstone as backups.
Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Ashton Turner, Shubham Ranjane, Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Oshane Thomas, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat
Manan Vohra, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson (wk), Aryaman Birla, Prashant Chopra, Rahul Tripathi, Steven Smith, Jos Buttler (wk), Riyan Parag, Ashton Turner, Shubham Ranjane, Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Stuart Binny, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Ish Sodhi, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni, Sudhesan Midhun
Read: Smith, Warner allowed to feature in IPL 2019
Royal Challengers Bangalore bought nine players in the player auction, with power-hitters Shimron Hetmyer and all-rounder Shivam Dube leading the charts. They also brought in South African Heinrich Klaasen as a possible replacement for Quinton de Kock.
Himmat Singh, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Barman, Milind Kumar, Shivam Dube, Gurkeet Singh
Himmat Singh, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel (wk), Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Barman, Milind Kumar, Shivam Dube, Gurkeet Singh, Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi, Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Marcus Stoinis, Yuzvendra Chahal, Nathan Couler-Nile, Mohammad Siraj, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya
With a squad strength of 20 going into the auction, made some shrewd moves in the auction. They bought just three players, including wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha, Jonny Bairstow and Martin Guptill.
Martin Guptill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Jonny Bairstow (wk)
Martin Guptill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Kane Williamson, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Ricky Bhui, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Thangarasu Natarajan, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Billy Stanlake, Basil Thampi