IPL 2016: MS Dhoni, CSK stars in highlights

NEW DELHI: Most successful players in the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be up for grasps today at the 2016 Players ' draft in Mumbai. India ' s ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni including his former Chennai Super Kings teammates Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin are expected to hog limelight at 2016 Players ' draft of the IPL. Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith from Rajasthan Royals too will be high up on the priority list of Pune and Rajkot, as they pick their five key players each from the 50-player draft. Last week, it was Kolkata-based business tycoon Sanjiv Goenka’s group New Rising which had pocketed the bid for the Pune franchise and smartphones manufacturer Intex won the bid for Rajkot in a reverse-bidding process. The two new teams replace Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) who have been banned from the tournament for the next two years. Pune will have the first chance to pick a player as they were the lowest bidders in auction to pick a franchise and, therefore, might opt to rope in iconic wicketkeeper-batsman Dhoni as the man to lead them from the front. The two new franchises will have a purse of Rs.40 to Rs.66 crore in which they to buy the cricketers. The players are from the two suspended franchises and they will be segregated into two pools capped and uncapped. Each side can pick five players each. The first capped player for both teams will be commanding a price of Rs.12.5 crore and the remaining four will be picked up for Rs.9.5 crore, Rs.7.5 crore, Rs.5.5 crore and Rs.4 crore, respectively. Uncapped players can be picked for a stipulated fee of Rs.4 crore.