ESPN lists the top Indian picks from Sunday's draft for Indian Super League 2017.
Pritam Kotal
Defender, Delhi Dynamos
Pritam Kotal, 23, has gone from being one of India's most promising wing-backs to one of the first names that is put on to the team sheet by national coach Stephen Constantine in recent months. He turned out for FC Pune City in the first two seasons of the ISL and was a key part of Atletico de Kolkata's championship-winning squad last year.
His addition -- sealed as early as the second round even though he is their most expensive acquisition at Rs 75 lakh (about $116,000) -- gives Delhi both a tidy defender as well as one of the best crossers of the ball from the flanks when on the move.
Robin Singh
Forward, ATK
Priced at Rs 65 lakh (about $100,000), Robin Singh was one of the surprising omissions in the early exchanges between teams, but it was left to his old coach at Bengaluru FC Ashley Westwood to take the former Delhi Dynamos and FC Goa forward back to Kolkata, where he played the last I-League season for East Bengal and seemed to be returning to some semblance of form.
Westwood has always valued Robin's height and strength as his big attributes, and he forms an interesting combination of tall players -- picks like Jayesh Rane, Shankar Sampingiraj and Ashutosh Mehta -- who will be expected to form the core of ATK's Indian contingent this season.
Ashim Biswas
Forward, Jamshedpur FC
Ashim Biswas was once billed as the most promising striker in Indian football, scoring four goals in his first 10 outings in the India jersey early in his career about a decade ago. A relatively short but speedy and skilful forward, he was among the first big players from Kolkata to move to Goa with Salgaocar around that time, and is still one of the highest Indian scorers in NFL/I-League history.
Recent seasons have seen Biswas slide down the pecking order and most of his football has been with second-division teams in the I-League such as Mohammedan Sporting and Southern Samity. For Biswas, going to Jamshedpur gives his career a new lease of life and Indian football fans a chance to see a top-class player plying his trade in the ISL for the first time.
Mohammed Rafi
Forward, Chennaiyin FC
Mohammed Rafi had become a cult hero in the yellow of Kerala Blasters, especially since moving to the team of his home state after picking one ISL crown with ATK in the first year. His impact was instant, scoring a headed goal that set Kerala on their way to a 3-1 win over NorthEast United FC in front of the throbbing Nehru Stadium faithful in Kochi in the opening match of 2015.
Last year was relatively quieter for Rafi, but he still has the ability to set the ISL alight and would especially be a big draw when Chennaiyin hop across for the southern derby away to Kerala Blasters.
Subhasish Bose
Defender, Bengaluru FC
Bengaluru FC are the ISL club most instantly impacted by the draft, as they are the first among the 10 teams that will be in action in the knockout stages of the AFC Cup, where they reached the final in 2016.
Coach Albert Roca was understandably concerned most about refurbishing his defence among Indian players, and that reflected in his picks -- with the most inspired of them being 21-year-old left-back Bose, who was one of Mohun Bagan's most consistent performers in the 2017 I-League. With John Johnson and Juan Antonio already retained among the foreign players, players like Bose, Rahul Bheke, former Aizawl FC centre-back Zohmingliana Ralte and Harmanjot Khabra will enable Roca to exercise the option of rotating his defence, and also employ his favoured formation of a three-man defence with two wing-backs.