IPL 2020 Auction Today: Time, venue and all you need to know

At what time does the auction begin on Thursday?

15:30 IST. This will be the first time that the auction will take place in Kolkata.

Key things to know about auction?

There are 73 unfilled spot unoccupied for all eight teams to fill up, with a maximum squad strength of 25 cricketers per team. Out of which, there can be 29 foreign players at the most. The total to players in the auction pool comprises 338 cricketers, with six new players- Viney Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Mathew Wade, Jake Weatherald, Robin Bist and Sanjay Yadav, added to the original 332. out of them, 132 are capped and 198 uncapped.

Big names and dark horses in the auction?

Some of the biggest names to go up for grabs are Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins, Chris Lynn, Eoin Morgan, Chris Morris, Shimron Hetmyer and amond Indian names are Robin Uthappa and Jaydev Unadkat.

And among the dark horses are youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal. He recently became the youngest cricketer ever to knock a List A double-ton in India’s domestic limited over competition. Uttar Pradesh’s Priyam Garg, who will lead the Indian team in the U19 World Cup.

Tom Banton, who has featured in only 21 T20s so far including three for England, could also attract big money. He cumulated 549 runs in the Vitality Blast this summer, at a strike rate of 161.50.

Also Read: IPL Auction 2020: Three West Indies batsmen who could set off bidding warfare

How will the players be sold?

The players are split into separate sets based on their specialisation. According to the order, decided by the Indian Premier League (IPL), the first set will be of specialist batsmen, which will be followed by all-rounders, wicketkeeper batsmen, fast bowlers and finally spinners. The auction will begin with capped players followed by the uncapped.

Budget for the teams?

Another Rs 3 crore has been added up to the franchise’ balance purse from the 2019 auction. Kings XI Punjab, who had the biggest budget in the auction, will have the most money available, of Rs 42.70 crore while Mumbai Indians have the slimmest budget of Rs 13.05 crore. Royal Challenger Bangalore have the most spots to fill (12) although they have only 27.90 crore in their purse.

Who will be the auctioner?

Hugh Edmeades, who carried out the auction last year.

Also Read: IPL 2020 Auction: 5 players to watch out for