Former Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will now play for the Sanjiv Goenka-owned Pune New Rising while his former CSK teammate Suresh Raina was picked by the Intex-owned Rajkot team at the IPL draft held here on Tuesday.
Both the players were picked for ₹12.5 crore each.
CSK had paid $1.5 million for Dhoni in the first IPL auction in 2008.
“Excited to play for the beautiful vibrant city- Rajkot in @IPL. Looking forward to have new teammates and support from the people of Gujarat,” Raina tweeted after the draft.
The player draft was necessary with the addition of two new teams for IPLs 2016 and 2017 after the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. New Rising and Intex won ownership at the franchise auction earlier this month. Goenka, having made the highest bid, then got the first pick in the draft held on Tuesday.
Fifty players, including players from CSK and RR, went into the draft. Ajinkya Rahane was the second choice for Pune, while Rajkot opted for Ravindra Jadeja. Ravichandran Ashwin was Pune’s third choice, at ₹7.5 crore.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was Rajkot’s choice.
In the fourth spot, both teams opted for Australians, with Steve Smith going to Pune and James Faulkner going to Rajkot. Pune opted for South African batsman Faf du Plessis as their fifth and final player, while West Indian Dwayne Bravo was Rajkot’s pick. Both players will get ₹4 crore.
The players not picked will now go to the general IPL auction scheduled for February 6.