The right number of Knights?

IPL auctions have for years been one of the most looked forward to events. The anxiety to see if the paddle is going up once more for a player, the energy reverberating through Richard Madley's vocal chords and above all, just the interest of which player has been bagged for what price, has always held a great interest across all the living rooms. While on one side, audiences are enthralled by the big bucks, the franchises on the other side have to budget in a lot of factors, from ticking off names from their wishlist to have enough in the coffers to be able to fill the other spots. As the franchises keep growing smarter with every passing year, one keenly watched area is the squad size. There's been enough debating over it, right from the starting days as the IPL governing council has gone from a maximum of 30 players to 33 in the first six years, to pruning it to 27 in 2014 and eventually bringing it down to 25 now.

For two years in a row now,