Hyderabad: The IPL 2020 auction is all set to take place in Kolkata on Thursday (December 19) and it will be a relatively low-key affair with eight teams aiming to bid for players within budget restrictions.
Initially, 971 players were registered for the auction but was pruned to 332 after the eight IPL franchises naming, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad, submitted their final list of interest.
The list of 332 cricketers includes 186 Indian players, 146 overseas players, and 3 players from Associate Nations.
It should be noted that only 73 slots are there to be filled by the eight franchises and 29 of those can be foreign buys.
Here's the list of the remaining purse of each franchise:
Slots left to fill for all the franchises ahead of IPL 2020 auctions:
- Chennai Super Kings – 5 (3 Indian, 2 overseas)
- Rajasthan Royals – 11 (7 Indian, 4 overseas)
- Kings XI Punjab – 9 (5 Indian, 4 overseas)
- Kolkata Knight Riders – 11 (7 Indian, 4 overseas)
- Royal Challengers Bangalore – 12 (6 Indian, 6 overseas)
- Sunrisers Hyderabad – 7 (5 Indian, 2 overseas)
- Delhi Capitals – 11 (6 Indian, 5 overseas)
- Mumbai Indians – 7 (5 Indian, 2 overseas)
The highest base price for the auction is Rs 2 crore and only seven players are in the top bracket. There is no Indian in the highest base price bracket.
Some of the biggest names to go under the hammer on Thursday are Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Chris Lynn, Eoin Morgan, Chris Morris, Shimron Hetmyer, and, among Indian names, Robin Uthappa and Jaydev Unadkat.
Interestingly, the players, who are in the auction pool, are divided into different sets based on their specialisation.
As per the order, decided by the IPL, the first set will be of specialist batsmen, followed by allrounders, wicketkeeper-batsmen, fast bowlers and lastly spinners. The auction will begin with capped players followed by the uncapped ones.
Also, the names of all the players won't be announced at the auction as IPL has decided on a list of 85 players to begin with, which is a mix of top players from different categories, based on who the franchises were keen on.
The accelerated auction process will commence after those 85 names are exhausted. From the rest of the list, franchises will be asked to submit the names they would want called at the auction. Once those names are exhausted, the unsold players at the first time of calling will be brought back, based on the names provided by the franchises.
The auction is set to begin at 2.30 PM IST and the auctioneer will be Hugh Edmeades from the UK. You can also follow the auction on ETV Bharat's live blog.
