IPL fever is here again with the auction for the 13th season happening live on Dec. 19.
The auction will see the eight franchises bidding to fill 73 slots from a pool of 332 players -- 186 Indian, 143 overseas and three players from Associate Nations. Each team can have a maximum of eight overseas players and a total strength of 25 players. Six more players -- R Vinay Kumar, Ashoke Dinda, Matthew Wade, Sanjay Yadav, Robin Bist, and Jake Weatherald -- were added to the auction pool later, taking the final tally to 338 players.
In all, 997 players had originally registered for IPL 2020.
Time and venue
A new venue has been chosen - Kolkata - for this year's auction. The auction was held in Jaipur last year.
ALSO READ: IPL auction list pruned to 332
The event is scheduled to begin at 3:30 pm and will witness international auctioneer Hugh Edmeades returning to strike the gavel.
Where to watch it
The IPL 2020 auctions will be telecast live on Star Sports and Hotstar.
Top players to watch out for
In the top price bracket for batsmen is Australia's Chris Lynn with Rs 2 crore. Shaun Marsh (Aus), Eoin Morgan (Eng), Jason Roy (Eng), Robin Uthappa (Ind) follow close behind with base prices set at Rs 1.5 crore.
Bowlers Josh Hazlewood (Aus) and Dale Steyn (SA) are in the top Rs 2 crore price bracket followed by Kyle Abbott (SA), Kane Richardson (Aus), Adam Zampa (Aus) and James Pattinson (Aus) at Rs 1.5 crore each.
Coming to wicketkeepers, the base price of Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh), the highest in the category, has been fixed at Rs 75 lakh.
In terms of all-rounders, Angelo Mathews (SL), Pat Cummings (Aus), Glenn Maxwell (Aus) and Mitchell Marsh (Aus) will all start with the top Rs 2 crore price tag.
How much will the teams get
The eight teams -- Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad -- are allowed to use the remaining amount from last year's auction and the money earned from player releases along with an additional purse of Rs 3 crore to make a total of Rs 85 crore.
Let's take at the funds available for each of the teams - Kings XI Punjab (Rs 42.7 crore), Kolkata Knight Riders (Rs 35.65 crore), Rajasthan Royals (Rs 28.9 crore), Royal Challengers Bangalore (Rs 27.9 crore), Delhi Capitals (Rs 27.85 crore), Sunrisers Hyderabad (Rs 17 crore), Chennai Super Kings (Rs 14.6 crore) and Mumbai Indians (13.05 crore).
