The fans might be missing Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) and they will have to do without them for the next two seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL). But they will not be missing their favourite stars in the galaxy of cricket.
IPL will continue to be an eight-team affair as two new franchises were added on Tuesday. RPG Sanjeev Goenka Group have bought Pune and Intex Technologies have bought Rajkot. There will be a players draft, which will exclusively be made for these two new teams of the IPL. And guess what, as Pune were the lowest bidder on the team buying process through reverse-bidding, they now have the golden opportunity to rope in MS Dhoni for Rs 12.5 crore. Goenka's New Rising might just have some other plans but the Indian skipper should be the ideal choice for the Pune based franchise.
"It's very unlikely New Rising won't pick Dhoni. Why shouldn't they? The way I see it, Dhoni will play for the Pune franchise," an official told reporters after the two new team were announced on Tuesday in New Delhi.
On the other hand, Rajkot will be looking to pick Ravindra Jadeja who scripted a wonderful comeback in Test cricket recently against South Africa. Popular players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson and many others will be eyed by the two new franchises.
The two new franchises Pune and Rajkot will be able to pick five players each from CSK and RR. These 10 players will be picked from a pool of 50 while the remaining 40 players will be up for sale. The rule of retention of four Indian capped players will be applicable for Pune and Rajkot along with the other teams in the IPL.
According to the tender, the first capped player will be paid Rs 12.5 crore. The remaining four capped players in the draft will be paid Rs 9.5 crore, Rs 7.5 crore, Rs 5.5 crore, and Rs 4 crore respectively. Uncapped players can be bought for a fee of Rs 4 crore. The trading window for the two new teams will open on 15 December and by the end of this month we will come to know which players will play for Pune and Rajkot respectively.
Let us have a look at some of the popular players from the suspended franchises CSK and RR who will be up for grabs in the draft:
From Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Ashish Nehra.
From Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, Steven Smith, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny.
