Defending champions Chennai Super Kings have been handed a huge blow as their costliest purchase from the IPL 2022 auction, Deepak Chahar, is set to miss the majority of the IPL 2022, if not the entire tournament.
Deepak Chahar suffered a quadricep tear in the third T20I against West Indies last month in Kolkata. And as reported by ESPNcricinfo, this injury is “likely to take several weeks to heal,” meaning he will miss at least half of the IPL season that is set to start from March 26 and run till May 29.
CSK are awaiting a final evaluation from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, where Chahar is currently undergoing his rehabilitation.
The four-time champions had bought Deepak Chahar at the mega-auction for a hefty price of INR 14 crore, making him CSK’s most expensive purchase ever at any IPL auction.
While Deepak Chahar’s effective powerplay bowling has been well known, his batting show in recent times – 69* (against Sri Lanka last year), 54 (against South Africa) and 38 (against West Indies) – have made him a valuable cricketer.
These attributes forced a bidding war at the mega-auction for the 29-year-old pace-bowling all-rounder. Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad went started the bidding fiercely and went on till CSK entered at 11 crore. Rajasthan Royals too jumped in but CSK staved them off to finally gain Deepak Chahar’s services for a whopping amount of 14 crore.
This was in alignment with CSK’s strategy of trying to maintain its core from the previous year. Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Mitchell Santner are other players that CSK managed to rebuy but couldn’t get hold of the likes of Faf du Plessis.
Deepak Chahar had played for the Super Kings from 2018, when they had bought him for 80 lakhs. He was CSK’s leading wicket-taker in this period with 58 wickets from 58 games; 42 of those wickets came in the powerplay. Impactful displays in the IPL also got him reckoning from the national selectors and now he’s in the mix of India’s ODI and T20 squads.
Since Deepak Chahar has not been ruled out of the entire tournament yet, CSK can’t get replacements.
