Indian Premier League 2016 Players Draft: Pune Grab Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina to play for Rajkot

Sanjiv Goenka's New Rising (Pune) grabbed India's ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for Rs 12.5 cr, while Intex (Rajkot) picked Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings teammate Suresh Raina for an identical value in the Indian Premier League 2016 Players Draft pick in Mumbai on Tuesday. (IPL 2016 Players Draft Live Blog)

Pune who bagged made the next big move, decided to pick Ajinkya Rahane as their second choice. Rahane has been the most consistent Indian player off-late and was snapped for Rs 9.5 crore.

Rajkot franchise decided to go in with the local flair by picking up Ravindra Jadeja for the same amount.

Excited to play for the beautiful vibrant city- Rajkot in @IPL. Looking forward to have new teammates and support from the people of Gujarat

- Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) December 15, 2015

 

An excited Rajkot owner, Keshav Basal seemed to be pretty excited with his set of draft pick. Bansal believed that even though they haven't decided on the skipper of the team, but he and his team will sit out soon and work it.

"After the hangover of the winning the franchise, our team settled in and zeroed in on the players that we want, and I guess we are very happy with our draft pick," said Bansal.

"Right now as soon as team gets together, we will announce the skipper of our team," he added.

Suresh Raina was excited to be the part of the Rajkot set up and was looking forward for another consistent season.

© BCCI

The Players Draft process was necessitated following the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the IPL for two years in the wake of the 2013 spot-fixing and betting scandal.

Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin will once again team up with his Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni as he was picked by Pune for Rs 7.5 crore.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum (Rs 7.5 cr) was the first overseas player to be picked in the Players Draft and will be seen playing for Rajkot.

The Australian too were in demand considering their consistent show both internally and based on their IPL experience. The Australian skipper, Steven Smith, who used to play for Sahara Pune Warriors for two seasons, was this time round picked by New Rising for Rs 5.5 crore.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals' most consistent all-rounder James Faulkner went to Rajkot.

Pune preferred their last and final pick to be South African Twenty20 skipper Faf du Plessis, while West Indian Dwayne Bravo (Rs 4 cr) was Rajkot's pick.

The draft pool only included players from Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. The two teams which have been barred from participation.

Pune's Top Five: MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis

Rajkot's Top Five: Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo

(With inputs from PTI)