Four-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had a disastrous IPL 2022 season. They finished 9th in the 10-team points table, failing to reach the playoffs only for the second time in their history.
Apart from the collective team failure, backroom drama hurt CSK a lot. Ahead of the season, MS Dhoni stepped down as the captain, handing Ravindra Jadeja the duties, however, after 6 losses in 8 matches, Jadeja relinquished the captaincy and handed it back to Dhoni.
There was a rift between Jadeja and the CSK management and ownership, but that is now sorted and the all-rounder will continue with the franchise. CSK also missed Deepak Chahar immensely, the pacer missed the season due to injury.
Ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction, slated for December 23 in Kochi, CSK announced their released players, which also included Dwayne Bravo, IPL’s leading wicket-taker, before the all-rounder announced his retirement from the IPL and is now their bowling coach.
Players released by CSK: Dwayne Bravo, Adam Milne, Chris Jordan, Robin Uthappa (retired), Narayan Jagadeesan, KM Asif, Hari Nishaanth, Bhagath Varma
CSK will have a purse of INR 20.45 Crore going into the IPL 2023 auction.
There are several causes of worry for CSK heading into the IPL 2023 auction:
Tough competition for Sam Curran
CSK have released Dwayne Bravo, Adam Milne, Chris Jordan – three proper T20 bowlers, two of them even renowned to excel in the death overs, and one is one of the fastest bowlers in the world. Now, the challenge for CSK is to find good replacements for them.
Although there perhaps isn’t any bowler in the auction who can replace what Bravo brought to the table with his death-overs skillset, the closest that will come is Sam Curran, who recently in the T20 World Cup 2022 emerged as a terrific death bowlers, taking 10 of his total 13 wickets in this phase. Sam Curran had been with CSK in 2020 and 2021 and they would love to have him back. However, other franchises too have cleared their budget for the likes of Curran and a couple of other overseas all-rounders, so it will be really difficult for CSK to get their hands on Curran.
14 crore for an injured Deepak Chahar
Deepak Chahar has had a horrific year where he missed 6 months of action, including the IPL 2022, due to a double injury. CSK had spent 14 crore in the IPL 2022 mega-auction in February to get back Chahar’s services – the most expensive Indian pacer in any IPL auction. However, an injury on the field while playing for India and then at the NCA sent him off for a long time.
He returned ahead of the T20 World Cup and was selected as a reserve bowler. However, a back injury had again ruled him out for months. Despite the news of his latest injury, CSK retained him for 14 crore, and now might not be feeling the best about their decision. 14 crore could have gotten them a couple of gun overseas pacers, or they would have gotten Chahar for a lesser amount in the 2023 auction.
Lack of quality Indian leg-spinner
CSK will be back at the Chepauk from next season, their home fortress where MS Dhoni likes to operate with a number of spin-bowling options. He will have the services of finger spinners Theekshana, Moeen Ali, and Ravindra Jadeja with Santner on the bench. But Dhoni and CSK might crave a leg-spinner, preferably an Indian leg-spinner because their four overseas slots seems to be occupied already.
The issue is there isn’t any Indian leg-spinner in the auction roster who has plenty of experience in IPL or international cricket. They then have to rely on their scouts to give them inputs of a local leg-spinner who can do the job at the Chepauk.
