IPL 2020: 3 take-aways from CSK's list of retentions and releases
Chennai Super Kings have released five players and retained the rest ahead of the 2020 IPL auction. Sam Billings, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Mohit Sharma, Dhruv Shorey and David Willey are the five who find themselves in the list of CSK's released players.
After the pre-auction move, the Super Kings have an amount of Rs 14.6 crore in their kitty to spend on fresh recruits. There are a lot of expectations among the CSK fans as to what kind of players will enter the squad during the December auction.
When compared to other franchises, the Yellow Army have released a very small number of players. However, despite releasing fewer players, the team would be busy in the auction because they seem to have a solid strategy behind what they are doing.
Leaving the core players untouched, CSK have released all the underutilized performers in their squad. Therefore, having the same base, the team could further strengthen the squad structure in the auction.
In this article, we look at the three key take-aways from CSK's list of retentions and releases.
#1 They might be looking mostly for backups at the auction
CSK did not release any first-choice players from their squad, even the aging and out of form veterans. Therefore, it looks clear that the team could just be looking for backups to their first-choice players.
Interestingly, before the release date, CSK enquired with Somerset about the availability of their wicket-keeper batsman Tom Banton for the upcoming season. Once they got to know Banton's status, the franchise released Sam Billings from their squad.
Due to the presence of overseas veterans like Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis, Billings wasn't a regular feature in the CSK squad. The same could likely happen to Banton if the MS Dhoni-led side secures him for the 2020 season.
Last season's under-performers like Kedar Jadhav and Suresh Raina have expensive contracts, so their retentions guarantee a regular spot for them in the playing XI. Therefore, expect CSK to buy mostly backup players at the upcoming auction.