All you need to know about the IPL auction

Mumbai Indians won the 2015 IPL, what’s in store for the 2016 edition?

The countdown to yet another season of the world’s most popular T20 league, the IPL, has begun with two new franchises, Pune and Rajkot, joining the bandwagon following the 2-year suspension for the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises.

From here the focus moves towards the next phase, the players auction which kickstarts with the draft for the two new teams on 15 December, Tuesday, and culminates in the main auction which takes place on 6 February next year.

Players Draft for Pune and Rajkot

The IPL Draft, which will allow the Pune and Rajkot franchises to pick up 5 of the best players each from the suspended Chennai and Rajasthan teams, is due to happen at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s Bandra-Kurla Complex clubhouse this Tuesday.

All players who were part of the two suspended teams will form two groups of capped and uncapped players respectively. While the capped players will include 5 top players from each franchise, the remaining players will be part of the uncapped category.

The first capped player that is chosen in the draft by each of the two new franchises will be paid INR 12.5 crore, whereas the other four capped players for each franchise are bound to get INR 9.5 crore, INR 7.5 crore, INR 5.5 crore and INR 4 crore respectively. On the other hand, the uncapped players can be picked up by Pune and Rajkot for a fee of INR 4 crore.

Top Players likely to be part of the Draft

India’s limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni looks set to be one among the first two picks of the draft, owing to his credentials not only in the national team but also his former IPL franchise, Chennai Super Kings.

Two other players from the suspended CSK franchise, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, are also likely to be in contention to be picked up early in the draft considering their recent exploits against the touring South Africans, as is Ajinkya Rahane from the Rajasthan Royals.

The other notable players from both CSK and RR who could complete the list of capped players in the draft include Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Steve Smith, Shane Watson, James Faulkner and Sanju Samson.

Key advantages for the new franchises

The 15 December draft will be crucial for both new franchises in terms of their respective team composition. However, things are only likely to be easier for them as they will be getting the chance to choose 5 players each from among 10 of the best performers in IPL history. This will ensure a strong foundation on which the rest of the team can be built by both Pune and Rajkot.

However, the Pune franchise is going to have a slight upper hand over its fellow IPL new joinee on account of their lowest bid during the team auction on 8 December as it enables them to pick the first player in the draft. It will, therefore, not be a surprise if MS Dhoni heads in the direction of Pune come this Tuesday.

Unless there is a drastic change in scenario on the cards, it is almost certain that nearly all the big players that have been released by the two suspended franchises are not going to any of the 6 older franchises in the Indian Premier League.

The players draft for Pune and Rajkot has been designed in a way that will ensure that big guns like Dhoni, Jadeja, Ashwin and Rahane among others will land up in one of the two new IPL teams.

Once the draft has been sorted, all the remaining unpicked players from Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals will join the players released by the six other franchises and will be up for sale in the main IPL auction, which will be held on 6 February 2016 at Bengaluru.