Pune seal transfer of Saurabh Tiwary, Albie Morkel from Delhi for IPL 2016

The duo, who were retained by the Delhi Daredevils in December, were transferred to the Pune franchise on Thursday as per a media release from the IPL. IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla confirmed the signings by the Rising Pune Supergiants through a media release.

“The Rising Pune Supergiants have added more firepower to their batting line up by acquiring the services of all-rounder Albie Morkel and specialist batsman Saurabh Tiwary. Both players, who represented the Delhi Daredevils in the previous edition, will now play for the Pune franchise" .

“The Rising Pune Supergiants had a brilliant IPL Player Auction. Adding some big names like Kevin Pietersen and Mitchell Marsh to the squad after having signed Indian ODI and T20I captain MS Dhoni, R Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane in the IPL Player Draft earlier this year," he added.

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Delhi Daredevils, who took a ‘gen-next’ approach in the auction by signing young and upcoming players, opted to release the duo, who had an average IPL season last year. Tiwary scored 109 runs from seven matches last year, while Morkel picked up three wickets and 86 runs from his four outings as the team from Delhi finished seventh in the 2015 IPL season. (Also Read: IPL auction 2016: The unheard and the untested, who stole the show)

Pune Supergiants' brilliant batting line-up which includes Rahane, Kevin Pietersen, Faf du Plessis, Steve Smith, MS Dhoni and Mitchell Marsh looks even better after acquiring the services of Saurabh Tiwary and Albie Morkel as replacements.

Albie Morkel was part of the Chennai Super Kings side for six seasons from 2008 to 2013 and had moved to Royal Challengers Banglore in the 2014 IPL season before playing the last year for Delhi Daredevils. On the other hand, Saurabh Tiwary, who hails from MS Dhoni’s home state Jharkhand, played for Mumbai Indians from 2008 to 2010 before moving to Royal Challengers Banglore and Delhi Daredevils. Tiwary was also part of the title-winning Indian U-19 team at the ICC 2008 U-19 World Cup. (Also Read: Our pick for the winners and losers of IPL 2016 after the spending spree)