The most consistent franchise in the history of IPL, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) did not have much work to do in IPL 2020 auction. They only bid for certain players and got most of them. In total, the franchise bought four players – Piyush Chawla, Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood and R Sai Kishore.
Chawla was the costliest India buy of the day as he was sold for Rs 6.75 Crore. The leg-spinner will join Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Imran Tahir at CSK. He will play every game in Chennai but MS Dhoni will have to bench few spinners when CSK play away from home.
Chawla, an IPL veteran, sits third on the list of most wickets in IPL with 150 scalps. He was with Kolkata Knight Riders right since 2014.
CSK also went behind Sam Curran right since the first bid and were involved in rounds of bidding with Delhi Capitals before making a final bid of Rs 5.50 Crore. Curran had joined Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2019 for Rs 7.2 Crore but was released.
The three-time Champions roped in Hazlewood and R Sai Kishore as backups at their base price. Hazlewood, despite not an automatic selection, could be one of the players to watch out for as pacers have dominated CSK’s camp right since the start of the league.
Sai Kishore went unsold in the first round but the franchise bid for him in the second round. He has been a net bowler for CSK.
MS Dhoni, who hasn’t played any form of cricket since World Cup 2019, will be leading the franchise in the next season. His form will determine whether Dhoni makes it to the T20 World Cup squad or not. Suresh Raina will also hope to do well and make a comeback in the national squad after more than two years.
Squad: MS Dhoni (Captain), Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, M Vijay, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Lungi Ngidi, Shardul Thakur, Piyush Chawla, Josh Hazlewood, R Sai Kishore, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Monu Kumar, Karn Sharma, Sam Curran, N Jagadeesan