IPL player auction - What to expect in 2017?

The 2017 IPL auction is likely to be one where a few players attract large bids, while the majority are bought at more prudent prices - keeping with the trend in recent years.

This dichotomy is a result of the imbalance between supply and demand: if only a few players are capable of filling specific holes in several teams, the franchises will fight over them.

For example, because high-quality Indian allrounders are in short supply they usually attract massive bids, especially if there are only one or two in the auction: Yuvraj Singh (INR 14 crore in 2014, INR 16 crore in 2015), Dinesh Karthik (INR 12.5 crore in 2014, INR 10.5 crore in 2015), Ravindra Jadeja (undisclosed amount after maximum bid of $2 million in 2012) and Pawan Negi (INR 8.5 crore 2016).

Another factor that affects the bidding for a player is his availability: will the England and South African players play the entire 2017 season, or only part of it because of international commitments?

So here's how the teams stack up at present, and a look at what they need and whom they might buy on February 20.

After finishing second last in 2016, Supergiants released 11 players - six of them overseas - ahead of the auction, further depleting their one-dimensional squad. No other team let go of as many players as Supergiants did. They did buy batsman Mayank Agarwal from Delhi Daredevils during the transfer window, though.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Mitchell Marsh, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ishwar Pandey, 10 Ashok Dinda, 11 Adam Zampa

Bench strength: Ankush Bains (wk), Jaskaran Singh (right-arm seamer), Baba Aparajith (middle-order bat), Deepak Chahar (right-arm quick), Ankit Sharma (left-arm spinner), Usman Khawaja (overseas batsman)

- A couple of overseas allrounders as back up for the injury-prone Mitchell Marsh.

- At least two fast bowlers - one Indian, one overseas - because they released six.

- A quality Indian spinner to support R Ashwin.

- Ben Stokes, Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson and Colin de Grandhomme (overseas allrounders)

- Tymal Mills, Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult (overseas fast bowlers)

- Basil Tampi, Mohammed Siraj, T Natrajan and Aswin Crist (Indian seamers)

- Pawan Negi, Parvez Rasool (Indian spin allrounders)

Number of players Supergiants can buy: 10

Spots left for overseas players: 4

How much they can spend: INR 17.5 crore (1 crore = 10 million)

In their first season, Lions finished top of the league but failed to make the final after losing both their playoff matches. They released eight players - the injured Dale Steyn the only overseas player among them - and so their Indian stocks might need replenishing.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 Brendon McCullum, 2 Dwyane Smith, 3 Suresh Raina (capt), 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Ishan Kishan, 8 James Faulkner, 9 Shivil Kaushik, 10 Praveen Kumar, 11 Dhawal Kulkarni

Bench strength: Aaron Finch (overseas batsman), Andrew Tye (overseas fast bowler), Pradeep Sangwan (left-arm quick), Shadab Jakati (left-arm spinner), Jaydev Shah (middle-order batsman)

- Two Indian spinners: a legspinner to replace Pravin Tambe and an offspinner for variety.

- An Indian fast bowler because Lions have only three in their squad.

- A not-so-expensive overseas allrounder as back-up for Bravo - who is presently injured - and Faulkner.

- An overseas fast bowler because they have only one specialist in Andrew Tye.

- Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Tymal Mills (overseas fast bowlers)

- Corey Anderson (overseas allrounder)

- Pawan Negi, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma (Indian spin allrounders)

- M Ashwin (Indian spinner)

- Varun Aaron, Mohammed Siraj, Basil Thampi, Aswin Crist, K Vignesh, T Natrajan (Indian fast bowlers)

Number of players Lions can buy: 11

Spots left for overseas players: 3

How much they can spend: INR 14.35 crore (1 crore = 10 million)

Having failed to make the playoffs in 2016, Mumbai released eight players but still have 20 left in their squad ahead of the auction. They kept their core intact despite some of their key players not being part of the international circuit anymore and others having struggled with injury between seasons. Their biggest asset is perhaps their domestic-player bench strength.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Rohit Sharma (capt), 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Lasith Malinga

Bench strength: Shreyas Gopal (legspinner), Vinay Kumar (fast bowler), Mitchell McClenaghan (overseas fast bowler), Nitish Rana (middle-order batsman), Siddhesh Lad (middle-order batsman) , J Suchith (allrounder), Tim Southee (overseas fast bowler), Jitesh Sharma (opener), Deepak Punia (allrounder)

- An overseas batsman - preferably an opener - because Mumbai have only two in the squad and Buttler will leave early.

- An overseas allrounder to cover for Pollard in case of injury or bad form.

- A couple of fast bowlers as back-up for Malinga, McClenaghan - both coming back from injury - and Bumrah.

- Jason Roy and Colin Munro (overseas batsmen)

- Angelo Mathews, Colin de Grandhomme and Dwaine Pretorius (overseas allrounders)

- Ishant Sharma and Basil Thampi (Indian fast bowlers)

Number of players Mumbai can buy: 7

Spots left for overseas players: 3

How much they can spend: INR 11.555 crore (1 crore = 10 million)

After finishing fourth last season, Knight Riders offloaded six overseas players - and nine in all - and then lost allrounder Andre Russell to an anti-doping code violation. They are left with only three overseas players in their lean group of 14, so expect them to go hard for foreign and Indian talent.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Robin Uthappa (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Chris Lynn, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Piyush Chawla,11 Umesh Yadav

Bench strength: Sheldon Jackson (middle-order batsman), Ankit Rajpoot (fast bowler)

- Overseas players: two allrounders (they have only Shakib at present), a batsman (only Lynn at present), two fast bowlers (none in the squad), and a spinner (only one in the current squad).

- Indian players: two fast bowlers and one spinner (only two of each in the squad at present).

- Ben Stokes, Corey Anderson, Colin de Grandhomme, Rovman Powell and Mohammad Nabi (overseas allrounders)

- Alex Hales, Nicholas Pooran (overseas batsmen)

- Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tymal Mills (overseas fast bowlers)

- Imran Tahir (overseas spinner)

- T Natarajan, Aswin Crist, Mohammed Siraj (Indian seamers)

- Irfan Pathan (Indian allrounder)

Number of players Knight Riders can buy: 14

Spots left for overseas players: 6

How much they can spend: INR 19.75 crore (1 crore = 10 million)

The defending champions released six players - Karn Sharma, Eoin Morgan and Trent Boult among them - and are left with 17, of which only five are overseas. With a settled first XI, they have considerable balance in their purse to make valuable additions to their squad.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 David Warner (capt), 3 Moises Henriques, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Naman Ojha (wk), 6 Ben Cutting, 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Bipul Sharma, 9 Ashish Nehra, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bench strength: Ricky Bhui (middle-order batsman), Siddarth Kaul (fast bowler), Abhimanyu Mithun (fast bowler), Barinder Sran (fast bowler), Vijay Shankar (allrounder), Kane Williamson (overseas batsman)

- An overseas quick as back-up for Mustafizur.

- An Indian or overseas spinner, because there are no specialists in the squad.

- An overseas allrounder as back-up in case Henriques or Cutting lose form.

- A wicketkeeper as back-up for Ojha.

- Kagiso Rabada, Tymal Mills, Pat Cummins (overseas fast bowlers)

- Corey Anderson (overseas allrounder), Imran Tahir (overseas spinner), Pawan Negi (spin allrounder)

Number of players Sunrisers can buy: 10

Spots left for overseas players: 4

How much they can spend: INR 20.9 crore (1 crore = 10 million)

Runners-up last year, RCB are the best team to never win the IPL. They released ten players before the auction but still have 20 players, among whom are the leading batsmen and bowlers in T20 cricket. They have eight overseas players already so can buy only one at the auction.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 KL Rahul (wk), 4 AB De Villiers, 5 Shane Watson, 6 Kedhar Jadhav, 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Yuzvendra Chahal, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Iqbal Abdulla, 11 S Aravind

Bench strength: Harshal Patel (fast bowler), Mandeep Singh (opener), Adam Milne (overseas fast bowler), Sarfaraz Khan (middle-order batsman), Samuel Badree (overseas legspinner), Travis Head (overseas batsman), Sachin Baby (middle-order batsman), Avesh Khan (allrounder), Tabraiz Shamsi (overseas left-arm wristspinner)

- An overseas allrounder because Watson is injury prone, or an overseas fast bowler because Starc's workload may have to be managed and Milne hasn't yet played a competitive game since a solitary match in IPL 2016.

- An Indian offspinner because they don't have one, and one back-up seamer for Harshal and Aravind.

- Ben Stokes, Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson (overseas allrounders)

- Tymal Mills, Pat Cummins, Trent Boult (overseas fast bowlers)

- Ishant Sharma (Indian fast bowler), Irfan Pathan (Indian allrounder)

Number of players Royal Challengers can buy: 7

Spots left for overseas players: 1

How much they can spend: INR 12.825 crore (1 crore = 10 million)

Kings XI were rock bottom last season, after finishing on the wrong end of several tight games. They retained 19 players, though, and released only four - the fewest among all the teams. On paper, they have a squad full of potential.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 M Vijay (capt), 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 David Miller, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Gurukeerat Singh, 9 Axar Patel, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Sandeep Sharma

Bench strength: Anureet Singh (fast bowler), Shardul Thakur (fast bowler), Nikhil Naik (wk), KC Cariappa (legspinner), Hashim Amla (overseas opener), Armaan Jaffer (middle-order batsman), Pradeep Sahu (legspinner), Swapnil Singh (allrounder)

- An overseas allrounder (they have only one at present) and fast bowler (none in the squad).

- An Indian batsman to back up Vijay and Vohra, and a domestic allrounder (none in the squad).

- Daniel Christian (overseas allrounder)

- Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins (overseas fast bowler)

- Prithvi Shaw, Ankit Bawne, Tanmay Agarwal, Vishnu Vinod (Indian batsmen)

- Pawan Negi (Indian allrounder)

Number of players Kings XI can buy: 8

Spots left for overseas players: 4

How much they can spend: INR 23.35 crore (1 crore = 10 million)

Daredevils' young squad finished sixth last season and the franchise has retained 18 of its players ahead of the auction. Of the seven players they let go, Pawan Negi and Imran Tahir were the most notable.

Their likely best XI at present: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Shreyas Iyer, 3 JP Duminy (capt), 4 Sanju Samson, 5 Karun Nair, 6 Rishabh Pant, 7 Carlos Brathwaite, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Jayant Yadav, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Mohammed Shami

Bench strength: Shahbaz Nadeem (left-arm spinner), Sam Billings (overseas batsman), Zaheer Khan (mentor and fast bowler), Chama Milind (fast bowler), Khaleel Ahmed (fast bowler), Pratyush Singh (middle-order batsman).

- Overseas replacements for Duminy, de Kock and Morris, who are likely to leave the IPL in early May.

- An overseas allrounder as back up for Brathwaite, who was inconsistent last season.

- Fast bowlers to back up Shami and Zaheer.

- An overseas and domestic batsman to strengthen a middle order comprising largely domestic batsmen.

- David Wiese, Colin de Grandhomme, Mohammad Nabi (overseas allrounders)

- Michael Klinger, Nicholas Pooran, Evin Lewis (overseas batsmen)

- Pat Cummins (overseas fast bowler)

- Tanmay Agarwal, Vishnu Vinod, Prithvi Shaw, Ankit Bawne (Indian batsmen)

Number of players Daredevils can buy: 10

Spots left for overseas players: 4

How much they can spend: INR 23.1 crore (1 crore = 10 million)