The truth is, they cannot. Sure, each team did manage to snap up their very own ‘big name’ and make their fans happy, but what is the point of the auction if, at the end of the day, there are still holes to be filled and issues to be addressed? A few decisions from the franchises on the evening of 19th - to overpay, go and not go for certain players - were baffling, flabbergasting and beggared belief; decisions that make you wonder if they’d strategized the auction in the first place. 

Somebody please inform CSK that next year is 2020

Royal Challengers Bangalore being Royal Challengers Bangalore

If what we saw in the auction was what Mike Hesson was brought in for, then I’m afraid RCB would be better off getting rid of him even before the season begins. “We got everyone we wanted,” said Hesson after the auction; Oh, not like they wanted Cummins and ended up with Morris (whilst overpaying), wanted Jordan and ended up with Richardson and wanted Carey and ended up with Philippe. That’s still okay as they were bullied by teams with bigger purses, but what about an Indian wicket-keeper, Mr Hesson? RCB have got Padikkal, Finch, Kohli and Philippe in the squad yet will HAVE to open with Parthiv Patel in the first match as a) He is the only Indian keeper in the squad and b) He is of no use to the team batting elsewhere. Or maybe they’ll just ask AB to keep wickets instead - of course, not like, he has enough on his plate already.

You have to give it to the Royals management, only they are capable of having Steve Smith, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler in the team and yet possess the weakest squad in the tournament. All they needed was three things: A quality Indian spinner, an Indian lower-order batsman, an Indian pacer and a few backups. What did they do? They forgot about the Indian spinner and the finisher, bought back Unadkat (again) and signed three overseas back-ups for Archer. They did get Yashasvi Jaiswal, who I think is a good signing, and replaced Rahane with Uthappa, but them scooping five other kids literally makes no sense. So with K Gowtham gone, are they just gonna ‘attack’ with their leggies - Markande, Gopal and Parag? And do they seriously expect Gopal to finish games off for them with the bat too?

Punjab face the “Chris Gayle vs Balance” battle

Hold your head high, Delhi

I’m not sure if Delhi will win IPL 2020, but they, without a shadow of a doubt, they were the winners of the IPL 2020 auction. It was, in fact, a lesson to all the other teams - they addressed every single issue they had. By bringing in Carey, they added a calm influence in the middle order - something that they’d missed last season - by couping Stoinis and Hetmyer they made their middle-order formidable and by getting in Woakes, they gave Rabada the cushion he needs. Roy was a bonus signing, of course, but sometimes you need to reward yourself. If anything, a world-class Indian pacer is what they miss, but to be fair, there weren’t many available in the market. Mind you, they did make efforts to fill that void by bringing in both Tushar Deshpande and Mohit Sharma. 

I’m fascinated to know what was going through the head of the SRH team management when they sat in for the auction. It took THREE HOURS for them to make their first bid and like, I’d mentioned previously, it was almost they were reluctant to buy players. They needed an overseas pacer, a world-class finisher and a Shakib replacement and I’m afraid they didn’t get any. Mitchell Marsh is an interesting buy, one that could go either way, but the fact that they did not even make efforts to go for the proven sub-continent giants - Maxwell, Hetmyer, Turner - is kind of startling. Oh and with Billy Stanlake being the only overseas pacer and with them having a pretty one-dimensional Indian pace attack, they desperately needed reinforcements on that front but despite having 10.10 crore left in their kitty, they will enter the tournament with Big Billy as their only overseas quick. Fabian Allen was a shrewd buy, no doubt, but hey, surely they can do better than him to replace Shakib. Once again, it’s going to come down to Warner and Rashid Khan, isn’t it.  

Guess Kolkata forgot the word ‘backup’