The Indian Premier League 2016 will showcase two new franchises in the form of Pune and Rajkot, who replace two of the most popular sides Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the next two seasons of the cash-rich league.
These two franchises will have the luxury of roping in their favourite players from CSK and RR in the players' draft, which will take place at the Club House of the Bandra Kurla Complex Stadium on Tuesday, 15 December. The player's draft will be culminating with the player's auction for IPL 2016 on 6 February, 2016.
[Get the report on the list of players picked in the IPL Draft HERE]
The players from the two suspended franchises will be divided into capped and uncapped players. The hotshots from both the sides will be included in the draft, from where Pune and Rajkot can take their picks for IPL 9. Both the teams will have a minimum of Rs 40 crore and a maximum of Rs 66 crore in their wallet to shell out during the draft and the auction.
There will be big players in that draft list and MS Dhoni is likely to feature in the first list of the draft. As Pune bid lowest during the team auction through the reverse-bidding process, they will have the first right to deny the Indian skipper on Tuesday. It will also be interesting to see whether the former CSK skipper, who has led them for eight consecutive years in the previous IPL editions, fetches big money just like he did in the first ever IPL auction back in 2008.
[Check out the twitter reactions after the IPL draft Here].
Other prominent players from CSK and RR, who can prove to be crucial for the next two seasons of the IPL and are also likely to be a part of the draft on Tuesday, are Ravichandran Ashwin, Brendon McCullum, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Steve Smith, Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner and a few more.
The top five capped players from two teams will feature in the draft. The first capped player chosen from the draft by each of the two new franchises will be paid Rs 12.5 crore. The remaining four capped players will have to be paid Rs 9.5 crore, Rs 7.5 crore, Rs 5.5 crore and Rs 4 crore respectively. The uncapped players can be chosen for a fee of Rs 4 crore.
Pune and Rajkot have the key advantage in this players draft for the next season of the IPL. They will get to select top 10 performers (5 each) from CSK and RR to set the foundation of their respective teams. Once the draft gets sorted, the remaining players from the two suspended franchises will be added to the auction list, which also includes released players from the other six franchises. Then all these players will be going under the hammer on 6 February, 2016 in the IPL 2016 auction.
