Tymal Mills' RCB are favourites for IPL after auction

The auction for IPL 10 took place this morning and with the tournament getting underway at the start of April, we’ve had a first look at how the bookies have reacted to the new signings.

Last year’s runners up Royal Challengers Bangalore go into the 2017 IPL as best-price 4/1 favourites, having added England T20 specialist Tymal Mills to their ranks this morning. RCB boast a squad full star names, having retained Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson among others. Having come onto the market at 9/2, RCB have accounted for 67% of all IPL bets placed via Oddschecker and the bookies have already seen sufficient backing to cut them slightly.

Mitchell Johnson was the big name signing for the Mumbai Indians in this morning’s auction and should form a formidable partnership with fellow paceman Lasith Malinga. The Indians have an abundance of bowlers at their disposal with New Zealanders Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee as well as Vinay Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard amongst the ranks. Pollard, Rohit Sharma and Jos Buttler will spearhead the batting line-up. Mumbai Indians have moved from 9/2 to 5/1 throughout the day.

All-rounder Mohammad Nabi became the first Afghanistan player in the IPL when he was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier today. The IPL 2016 champions also resigned Chris Jordan for the upcoming campaign. There’s no doubt they’ll be a force to be reckoned with again this year as Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, David Warner, Kane Williamson, Yuvraj Singh and man of the match in last year’s final, Ben Cutting, are among the squad. The reigning champions go into the tournament third favourites, at best-price 11/2.

The major news from the IPL today is the fact that Rising Pune Supergiants have made Ben Stokes the most expensive overseas player in the tournament’s history, paying £1.7m for the England all-rounder. The Supergiants came second bottom in last year’s table and are obviously looking to make their mark this time around. New signings Stokes and Dan Christian join a very talented squad that includes Indian superstar MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravi Ashwin, Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis, Mitchell Marsh, Adam Zampa and Usman Khawaja. The Rising Pune Supergiants are 11/2 to win IPL 10.

The Delhi Daredevils will be hoping 2017 is the year they win their first IPL title and the bookies have them at best-price 6/1 to do so. They boast incredible depth in their squad with Angelo Mathews, Corey Anderson, Kagiso Rabada joining the retained JP Duminy, Mohammed Shami, Quinton de Kock, Zaheer Khan, Sam Billings, Chris Morris and Carlos Brathwaite. Interestingly, one bookie has the Daredevils as the second favourites. Perhaps one of the sides to watch.

Jason Roy joined the Gujarat Lions this morning in the second round of the IPL auction and will be hoping his side can improve on their third-place finish in 2016. Roy joins another fiercely competitive squad with the likes of Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik and Praveen Kumar all on board. The Lions began the morning at 8/1 but are now best-price 6/1. It seems the late addition of Roy might have scared the bookies.

Kolkata Knight Riders are one of three teams to have won the competition twice. They added Trent Boult, Chris Woakes, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Darren Bravo to their ranks this morning. Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan, Chris Lynn, Yusuf Pathan and Andrew Russell will be key to their success. At best-price 8/1, the bookies don’t seem to fancy their chances.

The outsiders according to the bookies are Kings XI Punjab at 11/1. England’s limited overs captain, Eoin Morgan, has signed for the franchise having played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 9. Kings XI also signed Matt Henry, Varun Aaron, Martin Guptill and Darren Sammy this morning, with David Miller, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Murali Vijay, Marcus Stoinis and Hashim Amla the key names among the squad.