IPL 2021 auction to be held on February 18 in Chennai

The players auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 is all set to be held on February 18 in Chennai. The official Twitter handle of Indian Premier League on Wednesdayconfirmed that the mini-auction will be held on February 18 while also confirming the venue of the event.

With IPL 2021 retention deadline day bringing plenty of action in regards to franchises retaining and releasing their respective players, the IPL 2021 mini-auction is expected to providethrilling action as teams look to bolster their squads ahead of the much-awaited 14thseason of IPL. The IPL 2021 trading window is set to end on February 4.

However, the BCCI is still undecided on whether the IPL 2021 will be held in India or not. But the priority for the Indian board remains that the lucrative T20 tournament happens in India.

IPL 2020 was taken abroad, to the United Arab Emirates, in September-November due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the BCCI successfully pulled off the multi-team tournament without a hitch.

Smooth conduct of India's full-fledged home series against England, scheduled to start from February 5, should pave the way for the cash-rich tournament to be held at home.

Meanwhile, elite players like Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Morris among others were released from their respective franchise on the IPL 2021 retention deadline.

Mumbai Indians won the IPL 2020 after a splendid show in the UAE as the Rohit Sharma-led outfit lifted a record fifth IPL trophy.

Retained players list of all IPL 2021 franchise:

List of retained players by Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers,YuzvendraChahal, DevduttPadikkal, Josh Philippe, Mohammad Siraj, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pavan Deshpande, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson

List of retained players by Chennai Super Kings: N Jagadeesan, R Gaikwad, KM Asif, R Jadeja, MS Dhoni, JHazlewood, K Sharma, A Rayudu, S Raina, I Tahir, D Chahar,Fafdu Plessis, S Thakur, M Santner, D Bravo, L Ngidi, S Curran, S Kishore.

List of retained players by Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul, Gayle, Pooran, Shami, Jordan, Mandeep, Mayank, Bishnoi,Prabhsimran, Hooda, Sarfaraz, Arshdeep, M Ashwin, Arshdeep, Porel, Harpreet

List of retained players by Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Abhishek Sharma, Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem,ShreevatsGoswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Abdul Samad, Mitchell Marsh, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh

List of retained players by Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Eoin Morgan, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Lockie Ferguson, Kuldeep Yadav, KamleshNagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, Harry Gurney, Sandeep Warrier.

List of retained players by Rajasthan Royals: Robin Uthappa, MahipalLomror, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, MayankMarkande, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, RahulTewatia, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Jofra Archer, Andrew Tye, Ben Stokes, Tom Curran, Jos Buttler.

List of retained players by Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav,AnmolpreetSingh, Saurabh Tiwary, Dhawal Kulkarni, JaspritBumrah, Rahul Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Anukul Roy, Ishan Kishan, Aditya Tare, Chris Lynn, Trent Boult, Kieron Pollard, Quinton de Kock.

List of retained players by Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Shimron Hetmyer,AxarPatel,Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, ChrisWoakes, Pravin Dubey, Amit Mishra, KagisoRabada, Ishant Sharma, R. Ashwin, Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje.