The IPL 2016 Player Auction had it all – big buys of big players, surprising moves, shock snubs and some what-going-on-here bidding as well. After all the bidding dust has settled, all teams will look at their squad and think "yeah, we can compete for the IPL 2016 title here" and understandably too, because looking at all eight teams, it is difficult to find any real gaping holes in any of them.
Below are the final squads after the IPL Player Auction, including the players retained and the players bought during the auction.
[Complete list of sold and unsold players]
Mumbai Indians: Players retained: Rohit Sharma (C), Lendl Simmons, Ambati Rayudu, Corey Anderson, Unmukt Chand, Kieron Pollard, Parthiv Patel, Mitchell McClenaghan, Lasith Malinga, Marchant de Lange, Akshay Wakhare, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, Jagadeesha Suchitch, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Rana, R Vinay Kumar, Shreyas Gopal, Siddhesh Lad.
Players bought during auction: Mumbai Indians: Jos Buttler, Nathu Singh, Tim Southee, Krunal Pandya, KP Kamath, Jitesh Sharma, Deepak Punia.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Players retained: Gautam Gambhir (C), Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Lynn, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Brad Hogg, Morne Morkel, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Sheldon Jackson, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav.
Players bought during auction: Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, John Hastings, Jason Holder, Colin Munro, Rajagopal Satish, Manan Ajay Sharma.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Players retained: Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villers, David Wiese, Adam Milne, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, Sreenath Arvind, Varun Aaron, Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Players bought during auction: Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Kane Richardson, Travis Head, Samuel Badree, Praveen Dubey, Vikramjeet Malik, Akshay Karnewar, Vikas Tokas, Iqbal Abdullah, Sachin Baby.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Players retained: David Warner (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Kane Williamson, KL Rahul, Naman Ojha, Parvez Rasool, Trent Boult, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Reddy, Bipul Sharma, Karn Sharma, Ricky Bhui, Siddharth Kaul.
Players bought during auction: Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Deepak Hooda, Mustafizur Rahman, Aditya Tare, Barinder Singh Sran, Ben Cutting, Vijay Shankar, Abhimanyu Mithun, T Suman.
Kings XI Punjab: Players retained: David Miller, Murali Vijay, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Axar Patel, Anureet Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Manan Vohra, Mitchell Johnson, Nikhil Shankar Naik, Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Wriddhiman Saha.
Players bought during auction: Mohit Sharma, Kyle Abbott, KC Cariappa, Marcus Stoinis, Farhaan Behardien, Pardeep Sahu, Armaan Jaffer, Swapnil Singh.
Delhi Daredevils: Players retained: Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Mayank Agarwal, Saurabh Tiwary, Shreyas Iyer, Albie Morkel, Amit Mishra, Imran Tahir, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammad Shami, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Zaheer Khan, Jayant Yadav.
Players bought during auction: Pawan Negi, Christopher Morris, Sanju Samson, Carlos Brathwaite, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, Joel Paris, Sam Billings, Chama Milind, Pratyush Singh, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Pawan Suyal, Akhil Herwadkar, Mahipal Lomror.
Rising Pune Supergiants: Players bought in IPL Draft: MS Dhoni (C), Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Steve Smith, Faf Du Plessis.
Players bought during auction: Mitchell Marsh, M Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Kevin Pietersen, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, Rajat Bhatia, Ashok Dinda, Scott Boland, RP Singh, Peter Handscomb, Adam Zampa, Ishwar Pandey, Ankit Sharma, Ankush Bains, Baba Aparijith, Deepak Chahar, Jaskaran Singh.
Gujarat Lions: Players bought in IPL Draft: Suresh Raina (C), Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo.
Players bought during auction: Praveen Kumar, Dale Steyn, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith, Dhawal Kulkarni, Eklavya Dwivedi, Aaron Finch, Andrew Tye, Ishan Kishan, Pravin Tambe, Jaydev Shah, Pradeep Sangwan, Shadab Jakati, Shivil Kaushik, Amit Mishra, Sarabjit Ladda, Akshdeep Nath, Umang Sharma, Paras Dogra.