IPL Auction 2020: How CSK line up for the season | Best and Worst buys
The Chennai Super Kings were among the very few franchises that had retained most of their players. They had only five slots available ahead of the IPL 2020 auction and they didn’t have too much money in the purse either - they had a budget of just INR 14.6 crore.
Since CSK had most of their bases covered and they already knew what their starting XI would be, the auction for them was more about buying back-ups than anything else. They went into the auction looking for a back-up all-rounder, a back-up overseas fast bowler and an extra spinner, and they ended up getting all of them.
Here are the players CSK bought in the auction
Sam Curran – INR 5.5 crore (Back-up all-rounder for Dwayne Bravo)
Josh Hazlewood – INR 2 crore (Back-up fast bowler for Lungi Ngidi)
Piyush Chawla – INR 6.75 crore (extra leg spinner)
Sai Kishore – INR 20 lakh
Sai Kishore was the leading wicket-taker in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but CSK didn’t show any interest in him initially. With two quality left-arm spinners already in the squad, they probably didn’t feel the need for another one.
However, they bought the youngster at his base price later when he went under the hammer one more time in the last round of the auction.
Here is CSK’s full squad after the IPL 2020 auction:
Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, N Jagadeesan, M Vijay, Rituraj Gaikwad, MS Dhoni (C & wk), Dwayne Bravo, Kedar Jadhav Sam Curran Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Sai Kishore, Monu Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, KM Asif, Josh Hazlewood
Best buy
Sam Curran
Sam Curran brings the ideal skill-set to the table for T20 cricket. He swings the new ball back into the right-handers and with his slightly slingy action, is able to reverse the ball as well later in the innings.
In addition to that, he is a handy lower-order batsman who can get some quick runs when required.
Worst buy
Piyush Chawla
Piyush Chawla is a very useful leg-spinner in Indian conditions. However, the price at which he was acquired seems a bit too high considering the fact that CSK already had a leg-spinner in the reserves in the form of Karn Sharma.
They could have let Chawla pass and use the money to buy a back-up domestic Indian middle-order batsman instead.
After releasing Dhruv Shorey, they don’t have a domestic Indian middle-order batsman in the reserves anymore. If Ambati Rayudu or Kedar Jadhav gets injured, they will have to slot a top-order batsman like a Murali Vijay or a Narayan Jagadeesan into the middle order.