With the teams releasing some players, trading some others and retaining a selected few, the transfer market of the Indian T20 League’s 2020 edition was buzzing with action and now we can't wait for the actual auction - on December 19 – to get going.
Having said that, which team goes into the auction with an added advantage thanks to their pre-auction buying and selling?
Punjab, for instance, have a purse balance of Rs 42.7 crores in their kitty after releasing Varun Chakravarthy, David Miller, Sam Curran, Prabhsimran Singh and three others including an expensive Andrew Tye. They also traded out captain Ravichandran Ashwin and Krishnappa Gowtham while bringing in Jagadeesha Suchith.
Punjab have nine places available to be filled with the overseas slot being four and a big bank balance to bring in some exceptional T20 players. They were smart in letting go of some big purchases, but are they the best placed?
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Kolkata has let go of some senior, trusted players in Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla and Chris Lynn. They have Rs 35.65 crores left and 11 slots to fill with four of them being the overseas. They also brought in the highly talented Siddhesh Lad from Mumbai in a trade.
Money left with teams ahead of #IPLAuction #IPL2020 pic.twitter.com/grBcBwA2oR
— Rashmi (@Iam__Rashmi) November 15, 2019
Chennai and Hyderabad played it safe, although they also let go of six and five players respectively. Their bank balances and overseas slots to be fill aren't massive (Chennai - 14.6 crores and 2 overseas slots, Hyderabad - 17 crores and 2 overseas slots), but they should probably have been more proactive in letting go of players past their prime.
Bangalore let go of all foreign players except AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali, and with their expensive retentions, they have 27.9 crores to fill 12 slots, six of which are overseas. Same goes for Rajasthan who have traded out Ajinkya Rahane and Dhawal Kulkarni and brought in Mayank Markande, Rahul Tewatia and Ankit Rajpoot. With Shreyas Gopal available in the leg-spinner's category, the two trade-ins seem bizarre at best.
Let's now go over to the winner, Mumbai. The Rohit Sharma-led team is the most successful side in the league's history, and they showed why they have such a track record with some impeccable decisions in the build up to the auctions.
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Mumbai were active in the trading market and replaced their left-arm seamers, Jason Behrendorff and Barinder Sran with the irresistible Trent Boult, a sensational buy. They had also let go of other seamers and now have another new ball bowler in Dhawal Kulkarni.
While trading out Mayank Markande, Mumbai purchased Sherfane Rutherford, a high-quality West Indies all-rounder and a good finisher to add to their repertoire. They now have a very settled line-up already and can go to the auctions without too much thinking. While they have only 13.05 crores, the least among all the sides left, they have only seven reserve spots to fill with the main team all but wearing a settled look.
We have a distinct winner in the pre-auction transfer market, but it could all still change if a few of these teams ace the actual auctions with the amount of money they have.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Indranil Mukherjee
