The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League is all set to add more heat during the summer. Prefixing the heat, the auctions for the upcoming season will begin on Thursday in Chennai at around 3 pm. Drawing significant attention across and beyond the borders, the auctions will hit the floor by stirring a battle between the franchises to build a potent team and making better use of the remaining purse value. 

In what would become one of the notable auctions in IPL history, a total of 291 players will be listed on the auction table including the released players and newbies who are on the verge of making their IPL Debut. Of these 291 players, 164 players belong to India, 124 are from overseas while three will be the associate players in the auction. All eight teams have a reserve fund in their purse to stir a battle in the auction in their race to win in roping the top players. As the teams are preparing for the battle at its best, let's take a look at the list of retained and released players, the remaining purse value, and the key Indian players' who would dominate the auctions. 

Chennai Super Kings:

Available purse value - Rs 19.90 crore (six slots to be filled). 

Retained players: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Santner, Jagadeesan, Ravindra Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sharkul Thakur, Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood, and Sai Kishore. 

Released players: Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Shane Watson (retired from all forms of cricket), and Monu Singh. 

Mumbai Indians: 

Available Purse value: Rs 15.35 crore (seven slots to be filled)

Retained Players: Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Anmolpreet Singh, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Jayant Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Quinton de Kock, Trent Boult, Mohsin Khan, Chris  Lynn, and Saurabh Tiwary. 

Released Players: Prince Balwant Rai, Lasith Malinga, Digvijay Deshmukh, James Pattinson, Mitchell McCleneghan, Nathan Coulter-Nile, and Sherfane Rutherford. 

Delhi Capitals: 

Available Purse value: Rs 12.90 crore (eight slots to be filled)

Retained Players: Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, R Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Shikhar Dhawan, Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Shimron Hetmyer, Anrich Nortje, Daniel Sams, Chris Woakes, and Pravin Dubey.

Released Players: Alex Carey, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Lamichhane, Mohit Sharma, Keemo Paul, and Jason Roy. 

Punjab Kings: (Formerly, Kings XI Punjab)

Available Purse value: Rs 53.20 crore - highest (nine slots to be filled)

Retained Players: KL Rahul, Arshdeep Singh, Chris Gayle, Darshan Nalkande, Harpreet Brar, Mandeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Agarwal, Murugan Ashwin, Nicolas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Sarfaraz Khan, Chris Jordan, and Prabhsimran Singh.

Released players: Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, Hardus Viljoen, James Neesham, Mujeeb Zadran, Krishnappa Gowtham, Karun Nair, Jagadeesha Suchith, and Tejinder Singh Dhillon. 

Kolkata Knight Riders: 

Available Purse value: Rs 10.75 crore (eight slots to be filled)

Retained players: Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarty, and Tim Seifert. 

Released players: Chris Green, Harry Gurney, M Siddharth, Tom Banton, Nikhil Naik, and Siddhesh Lad. 

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 

Available Purse value: Rs 35.90 crore (eleven slots to be filled)

Retained players: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Joshua Phillipe, Adam Zampa, Pavan Deshpande, Kane Richardson, and Shahbaz Ahmed. 

Released players: Chris Morris, Shivam Dube, Aaron Finch, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, Dale Steyn, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Gurkeerat Mann, and Isuru Udana. 

Rajasthan Royals:

Available Purse value: Rs 34.85 crore (nine slots to be filled)

Retained Players: Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Manan Vohra, Mahipal Lomror, Mayank Markande, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal, Robin Uthappa, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, and David Miller. 

Released players: Steve Smith, Aniruddha Joshi, Ankit Rajpoot, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Tom Curran, Varun Aaron, and Shashank Singh. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 

Available Purse value: Rs 10.75 crore - least (three slots to be filled)

Retained players: David Warner, Abhishek Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Mohammed Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, T Natarajan, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, and Abdul Samad. 

Released players: Billy Stanlake, Sandeep Bavanaka, Prithviraj Yarra, Sanjay Yadav, and Fabian Allen. 

On the front of the players who would dominate the auctions are - Glenn Maxwell (AUS), Steve Smith (AUS), Dawid Malan (ENG), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Aaron Finch (AUS), Chris Morris (South Africa), and Moeen Ali (ENG). The list of high profile Indian players, who would be dominating the auctions, include Harbhajan Singh (released by CSK), Kedar Jadhav (released by CSK), Piyush Chawla (released by CSK), Umesh Yadav (released by RCB), and Shivam Dube (RCB). It must be noted that Sachin's son Arjun Tendulkar has registered for the auction with the base price of Rs 20 lakh and it has been expected that he will be picked by Mumbai Indians.