IPL 2023: 3 Worst Buys By Chennai Super Kings (CSK) In The Auction

Updated - 27 Jan 2023, 05:16 PM

Image Credits: Twitter

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The IPL 2023 auction was held in Kochi on December 2023. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) needed to buy 8 players to complete a squad of 25 players. The franchise had earlier retained 18 and released 8 players during the retention window. They had a remaining purse of 20.45 crores in which to complete their squad.

Initially, a total of 991 players, including 714 Indians and 277 overseas, registered for the IPL 2023 auction. The BCCI then decided to narrow down the list from 991 to 405. Earlier, during the retentions, the 10 teams retained a total of 163 players, whereas 85 players were released.

Kasi Viswanathan and MS Dhoni. (Credits: Twitter)

After the auction, they managed to complete a squad of 25 players and had just 1.5 crores remaining in their purse. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan said that he was very happy with the players they managed to acquire in the auctions.

The franchise will be without Dwayne Bravo who announced his retirement from the IPL earlier this year. Bravo retired as the highest wicket-taker in the IPL with 183 scalps, 140 of which were for CSK. He also scored over 1000 runs with the bat for the franchise.

Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni (Image Credits: IPL)

CSK ideally needed an Indian pacer to back up Chahar, an Indian spinner, an Indian wicketkeeper-batsman as a backup for MS Dhoni and a specialist all-rounder among the seven slots to fill in. They managed to bag Ben Stokes for a whopping 16.26 crores and Kyle Jamieson for 1 Cr. Ajinkya Rahane was another Indian player they bagged for 50 lakhs.

They bagged four uncapped players in Nishant Sindhu (60 Lac), Sk Rasheed (20 Lac), Ajinkya Rahane (50 Lac), Ajay Mandal (20 Lac), Bhagat Verma (20 Lac). In the process, they failed to bag a backup Indian wicketkeeper for MS Dhoni. fN Jagadeeshan, the Tamil Nadu keeper-batsman on who CSK had an eye on, was eventually bagged by KKR. In this article, we look at three worst buys by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2023 auction.

IPL 2023: 3 Worst Buys By Chennai Super Kings (CSK) In The Auction

Kyle Jamieson

Jamieson was bagged by CSK for his base price of 1 Cr. However, with Be Stokes also a part of the side as the specialist overseas all-rounder, Jamieson is unlikely to get a chance to play in the XI. Devon Conway, Maheesh Theekshana and Moeen Ali might be the other three overseas players in the side along with Stokes. This might also keep Mitchell Santner out of the playing XI as well. Given that he will hardly be given a game, Jamieson was one of CSK’s worst buys.

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Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane is well past his prime in his international career. He is almost 35 and played the last season with KKR scoring just 133 runs in 7 matches at an average of 19.00. CSK will be opening with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway and thus Rahane is likely to stay out in most of the games. The CSK middle-order will have Ambati Rayudu, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Ben Stokes and Ravindra Jadeja. Thus it is very unlikely that Rahane might fit in in the XI. His only possibility is the regular players get injured or Rayudu at number three goes out of form. Thus in terms of selection, Rahane was not a thoughtful buy from CSK.

Ajay Mandal

Mandal is a left-hand batting all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh having scored enough runs in domestic cricket. He has scored nearly 1300 runs in First Class Cricket and inching closer to 100 wickets as well. Being an all-rounder his domestic t20 numbers are not bad either. He strikes at nearly 130 with the bat and has taken 28 wickets from 34 games. With Stokes, Jadeja and Dube already in the XI, the youngster might have to wait for his opportunity.

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