RATING ALL THE EIGHT IPL SQUADS POST THE AUCTION

South African all-rounder Chris Morris walked away with the biggest price, becoming the most expensive buy at the auction, having been purchased by Rajasthan Royals for Rs. 16.25 crore...

- RENIN WILBEN

The IPL auction for 2021 season was held recently in Chennai, with 57 for the 61 available slots being filled up. 22 of the players purchased were overseas buys. South African all-rounder Chris Morris walked away with the biggest price, becoming the most expensive buy at the auction, having been purchased by Rajasthan Royals for Rs. 16.25 crore. With all the franchises making an effort to strengthen their squads, we rank how the teams stand post the auction.

1. MUMBAI INDIANS

There is really no surprise here. Mumbai had a very strong base going into the auction. They are, after all, five-time winners as well as the defending champions in the IPL. Mumbai purchased pacers Adam Milne and Nathan Coulter-Nile for Rs. 3.20 crore and Rs. 5 crore respectively. As always, they made a smart purchase, going for young and tall South African fast bowler Marco Jansen for Rs. 20 lakh. There were mixed reviews on the purchase of Arjun Tendulkar. Piyush Chawla at Rs. 2.4 crore also seems a bit high. Still, MI remain the strongest side in the league. With skipper Rohit Sharma, Pandya brothers and Jasprit Bumrah, they go into IPL 2021 as favourites.

MI squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Chris Lynn, Anmolpreet Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan, Adam Milne, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, James Neesham, Yudhvir Charak, Marco Jansen and Arjun Tendulkar

2. DELHI CAPITALS