All you need to know before start of IPL Auction 2018

The glitziest show is back in town and entire cricketing world will be up watching with bated breath as the owners try to buy the best players to take their team to cricketing glory. In case this is your first rodeo, we walk you through the IPL auction process:

How many players are being auctioned?

A total of 578 players will be up for sale on Jan 27 and 28 of which 244 are capped, 332 uncapped and two players from associate countries. Of them, 62 Indian players are capped and 34 from overseas.

How will the auction work?

The auction will kick off with the marquee list which includes top players. They are divided into two batches of eight. R Ashwin, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Mitchell Starc and Ben Stokes are among those in the first batch, while the second list will include Dwayne Bravo, Shakib Al Hasan, Glenn Maxwell, Joe Root, Yuvraj Singh and Kane Wiliamson.

Following the marquee players, they will be followed by capped and uncapped players – batsmen, all-rounders, wicketkeepers, fast bowlers and spinners.

How many players can each team own?

Each franchise needs to have a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 25. The upper limit on overseas players is eight.

Where can I watch the auction?

The live broadcast of the IPL auction will take place on January 27 and 28 and will be shown on the Star Network from 9 AM IST. The auction will be streamed live on Hotstar.

Accelerated process of bidding – what is that?

After the first 170 players have been bid for, the accelerated process will enable franchises to nominate a set of players from those and submit the list. These players will be up for nomination the next day.

How much can each franchise spend?

Each franchise can spend a maximum of Rs 80 crore on their salaries. Also they have to spend 75% of the salary cap, which amounts to Rs 60 crore.

How much money is left with each franchise?

Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab – Rs 67.5 crore

Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders – Rs 59 crore

Royal Challengers Bangalore- Rs 49 crore

Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians – Rs 47 crore

Who are the players retained?

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell

Delhi Daredevils: Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris, Shreyas Iyer

Kings XI Punjab: Axar Patel

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Rajasthan Royals: Steven Smith

What are Right To Match (RTM) cards and how many do the franchises have?

With an RTM card, a franchise can get hold of an old player by matching the highest bidder. CSK, Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and RCB have two RTM cards left while the others have three RTS left.

However, there are other rules which dictate the use of RTM cards and for instance CSK and MI can’t reacquire Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, who are  Indian capped players, since they have maxed out their limits. Similarly, KKR can’t use their RTM to retain a capped foreign player, such as Chris Woakes and Shakib Al Hasan.