From MS Dhoni to Shane Watson: The biggest winners and losers of the IPL players' draft

Written By Argha Bhattacharya | Updated: Dec 16, 2015, 04:58 PM IST

Rajkot owner Keshav Bansal (left) and Rajiv Shukla at the IPL players' draft on Tuesday

While there was no surprise regarding the players who were picked from the pool of 50, some eyebrows were raised at the order of selection of the cricketers.

After all the number crunching, we have two new IPL franchises with five players each, which they picked from the players' draft on Tuesday. While there was no surprise regarding the players who were picked from the pool of 50, some eyebrows were raised at the order of selection of the cricketers. Here are few of the hits and misses of the draft :-

HITS

1. Dhoni's stardom and Raina's aggressive acumen earned them top deals

While Pune snapped up the Indian ODI skipper at the first chance, the Bansal group got hold of Raina when their turn came.

It was more or less assumed that Dhoni would be the first pick of the draft and Pune didn't think otherwise as they went for India's most successful captain. The success rate which Dhoni has in the shorter formats of the game, made him overall favourites of the draft, while his leadership qualities added brownie points to his CV.

On the other hand no body had thought that Rajkot would go for Raina as their first choice. But their owner Keshav Bansal spilled beans on the reason of the decision. "Rajkot is a high-scoring venue and we wanted to pack our side with aggressive players." This proves that although the south paw is not going through a great phase in his cricketing career, he is still considered as the one of the great T20 batsmen.

2. Rahane at last gets his due worth

Just when the whole world was waiting for Pune to select Ashwin as their second player, the most underrated batsman of the Indian team, Ajinkya Rahane, stunned everyone as his name was propped up by the Kolkata-based franchise.

The diminutive Mumbai batsman is in the the form of his life across all formats of the game and his past heroics with Rajasthan Royals propelled him over Ravichandran Ashwin. This is reason why cricket experts say that if someone excels at the basics of the game, then he would be successful across all formats of the sport. Pune definitely thought so as they decided shell out a massive Rs 9.5 crore to the right-hander.

3. Pune franchise is the hit of the day

Having grabbed pole position in the auction by placing the lowest bid for their team, Pune made full use of their advantage and chose arguably the best five players from the draft. They already have Dhoni, Rahane, Ashwin, Steve Smith and Faf Du Plessis and if they manage to pick a few more exciting players in the preceding transfer window and auctions, they will become one of the toughest teams of the group.

MISSES

1. Sir Jadeja trumping Ashwin

Ashwin may have earned the tag 'India's premier spinner', but when it comes to a competition between him and Ravindra Jadeja, the later wins hands down, mainly because of his superior batting skills.

After Rahane was chosen by Pune, Rajkot didn't go for the best all-rounder of the world, instead chose home town boy Jadeja. May be his connection with Rajkot tilted the duel in his favour. The Bansal group was interested in taking the left arm spinner from Day one.

Team 'Jadeja and Ashwin' destroyed South Africa with their vicious spells, but the former has definitely won a small battle off the field.

2. Shane Watson's exclusion

If this draft had taken place before the 2015 World Cup, then the Australian all-rounder would have surely attracted a huge sum but things have changed in the past nine months. One of Rajasthan Royals' regular performers, Watson has fallen from grace after the World Cup. He had a dismal Ashes series in England and then called time on his Test carrier. Also his never ending injuries might have forced the team owners to not place their faith on the Aussie.

However, this doesn't need any mention that Watson would be one of the favourites in the auctions where he would surely be bought for a lesser sum than the draft.

Team Pune: MS Dhoni Rs 12.5 crore, Ajinkya Rahane Rs 9.5 crore, Ravichandran Ashwin Rs 7.5 crore, Steve Smith Rs 5.5 crore and Faf du Plessis Rs 4 crore.

Team Rajkot: Suresh Raina Rs 12.5 crore, Ravindra Jadeja Rs 9.5 crore, Brendon Mccullum Rs 7.5 crore, James Faulkner Rs 5.5 crore and Dwayne Bravo Rs 4 crore.