IPL auction 2020: 3 Indian pacers Chennai Super Kings might target
The strength of a squad in the IPL depends mainly upon the quality of domestic players across all departments. And despite comprising several big guns of Indian cricket like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, the Chennai Super Kings lack a proven Indian pacer.
Since returning to the league in 2018 after a two-year hiatus, CSK's search to fill that particular slot hasn't yielded much success. At the last couple of auctions the three-time winners were desperate to sign an experienced Indian pacer who could spearhead their domestic attack. However, they failed in their attempt to sign star Indian pacer Mohammed Shami last year despite bidding up to INR 4.6 crore; Kings XI Punjab snapped him up with a winning bid of INR 4.8 crore.
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That prompted them to go for Mohit Sharma, for whom they surprisingly shelled out INR 5 crore. Mohit has now been released since he didn't prove his worth in the only game he played last season, and Shardul Thakur has been expensive (economy of 9.23 and 9.36 in 2018 and 2019 respectively), so Chennai might once again go all-out at the auction to secure an experienced Indian pacer.
Let us look at three Indian fast bowlers that CSK might target at 2020 IPL auction.
#1 Jaydev Unadkat
Jaydev Unadkat, who was bought for a whopping INR 11.50 crore at the 2018 auction by Rajasthan Royals, was released ahead of the 2019 auction - only to be bought back by the Jaipur-based franchise for a sum of INR 8.4 crore. On both occasions, the Super Kings tried hard to sign the left-arm pacer too.
Chennai's interest in Unadkat was made clear when they bid up to INR 10.5 crore (2018) and INR 5.8 crore (2019) before Rajasthan Royals came up with the winning bids of INR 11.50 crore and INR 8.4 crore respectively. With the Saurashtra seamer all set to go under the hammer on 19 December at Kolkata, we can expect the three-time winners to once again bid for Unadkat given his experience across formats (260 first-class, 133 List A and 168 T20 wickets).
With 77 IPL wickets to his name, the 28-year-old pacer - who excelled playing alongside MS Dhoni at Rising Pune Supergiant - might head to Chepauk next season. Unadkat might also be hoping to make a mark for a brand new franchise after his mediocre two-year stint with the inaugural winners.