IPL 2020 AUCTION: All you need to know

Everything you need to know ahead of this year's star-studded IPL auction, which takes place in Kolkata on December 19 with 332 players fighting to join the eight franchises for next season's competition

When does the auction take place?

This year's IPL auction takes place in Kolkata on December 19 at 3.30pm IST (10am GMT), with the tournament's eight franchises set to bid on 332 players as they fill out their squads for the upcoming season.

How does it work?

For the upcoming IPL season each team can recruit up to 25 players, including eight from outside India, with a total salary cap of INR 85 crore (approximately £8,956,000). This marks an increase of 3 crore from the 2019 tournament figure, and teams must spend at least 75 per cent of their allowance.

Each side has already had the opportunity to retain and trade squad members ahead of the auction, with teams heading into Thursday's event with anywhere between five and 12 squad spaces available.

Each of the 332 players available in this year's auction has a reserve price of between INR 20 lacs and 2 crore (£21,000 to £210,000), though players of course can go for far higher prices – Jaydev Unadkat and Varun Chakravarthy led the way in last year's auction, going for 8.4 crore each despite reserves of 1.5 crore and 20 lacs respectively.

What are the teams and what are their budgets?

Royal Challengers Bangalore heading into this year's auction with the smallest squad, having retained just two overseas stars (AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali) and 11 local players.

However, Kings XI Punjab have the most cash to splash, with a whopping 42.70 crore available to round out Anil Kumble's squad despite 16 player retentions, including KL Rahul and Chris Gayle.

While previous auctions have offered teams the opportunity the right to match bids from other teams for up to five players in addition to any contract retentions, this is not the case in this year's edition.

IPL 2020 SQUADS: Full Indian Premier League player retentions list

Chennai Super Kings
Overseas slots: 2
Total slots: 5
Budget: 14.60 Cr (£1,540,000)

Delhi Capitals
Overseas slots: 5
Total slots: 11
Budget: 27.85 Cr (£2,930,000)

Kings XI Punjab
Overseas slots: 4
Total slots: 9
Budget: 42.70 Cr (£4,500,000)

Kolkata Knight Riders
Overseas slots: 4
Total slots: 11
Budget: 35.65 Cr (£3,760,000)

Mumbai Indians
Overseas slots: 2
Total slots: 7
Budget: 13.05 Cr (£1,380,000)

Rajasthan Royals
Overseas slots: 4
Total slots: 11
Budget: 28.90 Cr (£3,050,000)

Royal Challengers Bangalore
Overseas slots: 6
Total slots: 12
Budget: 27.90 Cr (£2,940,000)

Sunrisers Hyderabad
Overseas slots: 2
Total slots: 7
Budget: 17.00 Cr (£1,790,000)

Which players are available?

After 997 players entered themselves into this year's drafts, the list has been narrowed down to 332 players after each franchise submitted shortlists to tournament organisers.

Players have been allocated into 44 sets to make for a more manageable auction list, however these groupings do not relate to players' reserve prices.

The sets, the players, and their reserve prices for the auction are as follows: 

Set 1: Aaron Finch (AUS, 1 Cr), Chris Lynn (AUS, 2 Cr), Eoin Morgan (ENG, 1.5 Cr), Cheteshwar Pujara (50 L), Jason Roy (ENG, 1.5 Cr), Robin Uthappa (1.5 Cr), Hanuma Vihari (50 L)

Set 2: Stuart Binny (50 L), Pat Cummins (AUS, 3 Cr), Sam Curran (ENG, 1 Cr), Colin de Grandhomme (NZ, 75 L), Glenn Maxwell (AUS, 2 Cr), Chris Morris (SA, 1.5 Cr), Yusuf Pathan (1 Cr)

Set 3: Chris Woakes (ENG, 1.5 Cr), Alex Carey (AUS, 50 L), Shai Hope (WI, 50 L), Heinrich Klaasen (SA, 50 L), Naman Ojha (50 L), Kusal Perera (SL, 50 L), Mushfiqur Rahim (BAN, 75 L)

Set 4: Sheldon Cottrell (WI, 50 L), Nathan Coulter-Nile (AUS, 1 Cr), Mohit Sharma (50 L), Tim Southee (NZ, 1 Cr), Dale Steyn (SA, 2 Cr), Andrew Tye (AUS, 1 Cr), Jaydev Unadkat (1 Cr)

Set 5: Piyush Chawla (1 Cr), Zahir Khan (AFG, 50 L), Ish Sodhi (NZ, 75 L), Hayden Walsh Jr (WI, 50 L), Adam Zampa (AUS, 1.5 Cr)

World Cup captains Eoin Morgan and Aaron Finch are set to attract big money to start this year's auction

Set 6: Harpreet Bhatia (20 L), Priyam Garg (20 L), Rohan Kadam (20 L), Manjot Kalra (20 L), Virat Singh (20 L), Rahul Tripathi (20 L)

Set 7: Varun Chakaravarthy (30 L), Pavan Deshpande (20 L), Deepak Hooda (40 L), Yashasvi Jaiswal (20 L), Shahrukh Khan (20 L), Daniel Sams (AUS, 20 L)

Set 8: Ankush Bains (20 L), Srikar Bharat (20 L), Kedar Devdhar (20 L), Anuj Rawat (20 L), Prabhsimran Singh (20 L), Vishnu Vinod (20 L)

Set 9: Tushar Deshpande (20 L), Kulwant Khejroliya (20 L), Riley Meredith (AUS, 40 L), Ishan Porel (20 L), Akash Singh (20 L), Kartik Tyagi (20 L)

Set 10: Noor Ahmad (AFG, 30 L), Ravi Bishnoi (20 L), KC Cariappa (20 L), Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore (20 L), Manimaran Siddharth (20 L), Midhun Sudhesan (20 L)

Set 11: Martin Guptill (NZ, 1 Cr), Shimron Hetmyer (WI, 50 L), Colin Ingram (SA, 50 L), Evin Lewis (WI, 1 Cr), David Miller (SA, 75 L), Saurabh Tiwary (50 L), Manoj Tiwary (50 L)

Set 12: Carlos Brathwaite (WI, 50 L), Ben Cutting (AUS, 75 L), Rishi Dhawan (50 L), Mitch Marsh (AUS, 2 Cr), Colin Munro (NZ, 1 Cr), James Neesham (NZ, 50 L), Andile Phehlukwayo (SA, 50 L), Marcus Stoinis (AUS, 1 Cr)

Set 13: Josh Hazlewood (AUS, 2 Cr), Alzarri Joseph (WI, 50 L), Adam Milne (NZ, 50 L), Anrich Nortje (SA, 50 L), Mustafizur Rahman (BAN, 1 Cr), Barinder Sran (50 L), Mark Wood (ENG, 50 L)

Set 14: Shivam Chauhan (20 L), Abhimanyu Easwaran (20 L), Laurie Evans (ENG, 40 L), Naushad Shaikh (20 L), Pratham Singh (20 L), Himmat Singh (20 L)

Set 15: Ayush Badoni (20 L), Sandeep Bavanaka (20 L), Pravin Dubey (20 L), Chris Green (AUS, 20 L), Shubhang Hegde (20 L), Shams Mulani (20 L), Shubham Ranjane (20 L), Dhruv Shorey (20 L), Swapnil Singh (20 L), Lalit Yadav (20 L)

IPL 2020 SQUADS: Full Indian Premier League player retentions list

Set 16: Shahbaz Ahmed (20 L), Sheldon Jackson (20 L), Arun Karthik (20 L), Nikhil Naik (20 L), Agniv Pan (20 L), Josh Philippe (AUS, 20 L), Luvnith Sisodia (20 L), Upendra Yadav (20 L)

Set 17: Ben Dwarshuis (AUS, 40 L), Ali Khan (USA, 20 L), Mohsin Khan (20 L), Lukman Meriwala (20 L), Rahul Shukla (20 L), Gourav Yadav (20 L)

Set 18: Zeeshan Ansari (20 L), Satyajeet Bachhav (20 L), Tejas Baroka (20 L), Shivil Kaushik (20 L), Pradeep Sahu (20 L), Karanveer Singh (20 L)

Set 19: Tom Banton (ENG, 1 Cr), Alex Hales (ENG, 1 Cr), Janneman Malan (SA, 50 L), Aiden Markram (SA, 50 L), Shaun Marsh (AUS, 1.5 Cr), Rilee Rossouw (SA, 1 Cr)

Set 20: Fabian Allen (WI, 50 L), Corey Anderson (NZ, 75 L), Tom Curran (ENG, 1 Cr), Jason Holder (WI, 75 L), Chris Jordan (ENG, 75 L), Daryl Mitchell (NZ, 50 L), Rovman Powell (WI, 50 L), Isuru Udana (SL, 50 L), David Willey (ENG, 1.5 Cr)

Set 21: Ben Dunk (AUS, 50 L), Tom Latham (NZ, 50 L), Ben McDermott (AUS, 50 L), Glenn Phillips (NZ, 50 L), Tim Seifert (NZ, 50 L), Mohammad Shahzad (AFG, 50 L)

Set 22: Sean Abbott (AUS, 75 L), Pat Brown (ENG, 50 L), Beuran Hendricks (SA, 50 L), Matt Henry (NZ, 50 L), Kane Richardson (AUS, 1.5 Cr), Oshane Thomas (WI, 50 L), Naveen-ul-Haq (AFG, 50 L)

Set 23: Qais Ahmad (AFG, 50 L), Fawad Ahmed (AUS, 50 L), Khary Pierre (WI, 50 L), Waqar Salamkheil (AFG, 50 L), Tabraiz Shamsi (SA, 50 L)

Set 24: Shivam Bhambri (20 L), Ricky Bhui (20 L), Hiten Dalal (20 L), Shubham Khajuria (20 L), Amandeep Khare (20 L), Ravikumar Samarth (20 L), Mayank Rawat (20 L)

Set 25: Tilak Varma (20 L), Prayas Barman (20 L), Prashant Chopra (20 L), Mayank Dagar (20 L), C Hari Nishanth (20 L), Roosh Kalaria (20 L), Akshay Karnewar (20 L), Sumit Kumar (20 L), Vishal Kushwah (20 L), Akshdeep Nath (20 L)

Sussex seamers Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills and George Garton are among five players from the county to appear in this year's auction list

Set 26: Avi Barot (20 L), Aryan Juyal (20 L), Sumit Kumar (20 L), Anmol Malhotra (20 L), Smit Patel (20 L), Saurabh Rawat (20 L), Jitesh Sharma (20 L), Mayank Sidhu (20 L)

Set 27: Nandre Burger (SA, 20 L), Stephen Chipurupalli (20 L), Yash Dayal (20 L), Chama Milind (20 L), G Periyaswamy (20 L), Chetan Sakariya (20 L), Kuldeep Sen (20 L), Anureet Singh (30 L), Pradeep Thippeswamy (20 L), Tanveer-ul-Haq (20 L)

Set 28: Mihir Hirwani (20 L), S Manigandan (20 L), Shiva Singh (20 L), Ajay Sonu T (20 L), Pravin Tambe (20 L), Sagar Udeshi (20 L)

Set 29: Tom Bruce (NZ, 50 L), Oshada Fernando (SL, 50 L), Avishka Fernando (SL, 50 L), Brandon King (WI, 50 L), Lendl Simmons (WI, 75 L), Rassie van der Dussen (SA, 50 L)

Set 30: Ashton Agar (AUS, 1 Cr), James Faulkner (AUS, 50 L), Lewis Gregory (ENG, 50 L), Moises Henriques (AUS, 1 Cr), Scott Kuggeleijn (NZ, 50 L), Romario Shepherd (WI, 50 L), D'Arcy Short (AUS, 1 Cr), David Wiese (SA, 75 L), Karim Janat (AFG, 50 L)

Set 31: Kyle Abbott (SA, 1.5 Cr), Doug Bracewell (NZ, 50 L), Marchant de Lange (SA, 75 L), Ben Laughlin (AUS, 50 L), Tymal Mills (ENG, 50 L), James Pattinson (AUS, 1 Cr), Liam Plunkett (ENG, 1 Cr)

Set 32: Sachin Baby (20 L), Rajesh Bishnoi (20 L), Unmukt Chand (20 L), Cameron Delport (SA, 40 L), Tanmay Mishra (20 L), Priyank Panchal (20 L), Vishnu Solanki (20 L)

Set 33: Chaitanya Bishnoi (20 L), Yudhvir Charak (20 L), Chandrapal Chundawat (20 L), Tajinder Dhillon (20 L), Azim Kazi (20 L), Sujit Nayak (20 L), Abdul Samad (20 L), Jalaj Saxena (30 L), Utkarsh Singh (20 L), Harsh Tyagi (20 L)

Set 34: Aniket Choudhary (20 L), Puneet Datey (20 L), Akash Deep (20 L), Nathan Ellis (AUS, 20 L), Sayan Ghosh (20 L), Chemar Holder (WI, 20 L), Arzan Nagwaswalla (20 L), Safvan Patel (20 L), Pradeep Sangwan (30 L), Prithviraj Yarra (20 L)

Set 35: Ravi Bopara (ENG, 50 L), Wanindu Hasaranga (SL, 50 L), Dimuth Karunaratne (SL, 50 L), Mahmudullah (BAN, 75 L), Angelo Mathews (SL, 2 Cr), Wiaan Mulder (SA, 50 L), Dasun Shanaka (SL, 50 L), JJ Smuts (SA, 50 L), Ashton Turner (AUS, 75 L)

Set 36: Dushmantha Chameera (SL, 50 L), Saqib Mahmood (ENG, 75 L), Obed McCoy (WI, 50 L), Nuwan Pradeep (SL, 50 L), Blair Tickner (NZ, 50 L), Kesrick Williams (WI, 50 L)

Set 37: Armaan Jaffer (20 L), Siddharth Krishnamurthy (20 L), Rajat Patidar (20 L), Shubham Singh Pundir (20 L), Himanshu Rana (20 L), Ekant Sen (20 L), Subhranshu Senapati (20 L)

Set 38: Baba Aparajith (20 L), Gerald Coetzee (SA, 20 L), George Garton (ENG, 20 L), Benny Howell (ENG, 40 L), Ankit Kaushik (20 L), M Mohammed (20 L), Ankit Sharma (20 L), Jaskarandeep Singh (30 L), Vivek Singh (20 L), Gurinder Singh (20 L)

Set 39: Vaibhav Arora (20 L), Mukesh Choudhary (20 L), Saurabh Dubey (20 L), Matt Kelly (AUS, 20 L), Arafat Khan (20 L), Zahoor Khan (UAE, 20 L), Sushant Mishra (20 L), David Payne (ENG, 30 L), Kanishk Seth (20 L), Lalit Yadav (20 L)

Set 40: Dan Christian (AUS, 75 L), Anaru Kitchen (NZ, 50 L), Jeevan Mendis (SL, 50 L), Thisara Perera (SL, 1 Cr), Angelo Perera (SL, 50 L), Seekkuge Prasanna (SL, 50 L), Sabbir Rahman (BAN, 50 L), Raymon Reifer (WI, 50 L), Mohammad Saifuddin (BAN, 50 L)

^{Allrounders Dan Christian and Thisara Perera are both hoping to make IPL returns having last represented the short-lived Rising Pune Supergiant franchise}

Set 41: Max Bryant (AUS, 20 L), Rahul Gahlaut (20 L), Salman Khan (20 L), Sharad Lumba (20 L), Marco Marais (SA, 20 L), George Munsey (SCO, 20 L), Nehal Pajni (20 L)

Set 42: Himanshu Bisht (20 L), Rohit Damodaran (20 L), Ayush Jamwal (20 L), Anirudha Joshi (20 L), Ripal Patel (20 L), Abhimanyu Ran (20 L), Kshitiz Sharma (20 L), Nitin Sharma (20 L), Akshay Solanki (20 L), Pranshu Vijayran (20 L)

Set 43: Nikhil Chaudhary (20 L), Rajat Choudhary (20 L), Khizar Dafedar (20 L), Digvijay Deshmukh (20 L), Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (20 L), Aman Khan (20 L), Prerak Mankad (20 L), Dhrumil Matkar (20 L), Ramandeep Singh (20 L), Prince Balwant Rai Singh (20 L)

Set 44: M Abhinav (20 L), Arjun Azad (20 L), Nachiket Bhute (20 L), Corbin Bosch (SA, 20 L), James Fuller (ENG, 40 L), Shaik Ismail (20 L), Will Jacks (ENG, 30 L), Jack Prestwidge (AUS, 20 L), Yash Rathod (20 L), Pratyush Singh (20 L)

How do I follow it?

Star Gold (Sky 717) will carry live coverage of this year's auction from 3.30pm IST (10am GMT) on Thursday, with online streaming available through the Hotstar platform.

Alternatively, The Cricketer will be running a liveblog throughout the event.

When does the IPL start?

Fixtures for the next IPL season have yet to be officially confirmed, however the tournament is likely to return to its traditional April to May window after starting on March 23 in 2019 due to a clash with India's elections.

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