After a conservative first day of bidding for familiar names — including picking up Deepak Chahar for a whopping Rs 14 crore — the Chennai Super Kings think tank rolled up their sleeves to make smart buys at great value.

The highlights of the CSK auction process came late on Sunday afternoon when the team placed successful bids for three New Zealand regulars: top-order left-handed batsman Devon Conway at his base price of Rs 1 crore, left-arm-spin all-rounder Mitchell Santner (also an existing CSK member) for Rs 1.9 crore, and fast-bowler Adam Milne for Rs 1.9 crore.

Milne, in particular, made for a great pick given his proclivity to touch speeds of 150 km/hr on demand, while Conway’s selection will help fill a Du-Plessis-shaped cavity in the opening slot. CSK’s opening combination, for the moment, seems likely to feature Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway.

In no time, the team also placed successful bids to sneak in two more familiar names in Tamil Nadu state mates, existing CSK squad members and batting powerhouses, wicket-keeper Narayan Jagadeesan and Southpaw C Hari Nishaanth — both for their base price of Rs 20 lakh.

With some more money to spend and not much else to lose, the team bid briskly for England death-overs seam specialist, Chris Jordan for Rs 3.6 crore as back-up for Dwayne Bravo. This pick in particular was praise-worthy given Jordan’s proclivity to nail down his Yorkers coupled with great value-addition as an outfielder.

Earlier in the day, the CSK management managed to make up for Shardul Thakur’s departure by successfully buying all-rounder Shivam Dube for Rs 4 crore. However, one must acknowledge that Dube is more batsman than bowler as opposed to Thakur who was mainly picked for his bowling.

Two other picks in South African bowling all-rounder Dwayne Pretorius (bought for base price of Rs 50 lakh) and 21-year-old Sri Lankan off-spinner, Maheesh Theekshana (Rs 70 lakh), were also no less than smart picks owing to the utility both players bring to the side mainly by way of their bowling and some handy lower-order batting as well. The fact that CSK got them both for cheap, only added value to these investments.

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However, the most obvious observation about this Chennai Super Kings side is simply the fact that it has managed to secure eight (four retentions, four buy-backs) out of the 11 players that played and won the IPL Finals in 2021. This included expensive bids: Ambati Rayudu at Rs 6.75 crore, for one.

If it wasn’t evident at the start of the auction, it must be clear as daylight by now: Team CSK values familiarity as an indispensable champion trait. An obsession with keeping the core of its side intact was thus the objective of the two-day auction. They almost succeeded too but for missing out on securing Faf Du Plessis and Shardul Thakur.

Faf, in particular, will be sorely missed especially as he ends a nine-year innings as a CSK member. CSK’s reluctance to bid more aggressively for him won the team some ire on social media, as did the lack of intent to buy back Suresh Raina even at his base price, despite having money to spare.

Raina, who went unsold at the end of the IPL Auction now looks certain to miss IPL 2022, in what seems to be a sad end for one of the league’s most consistent batters who remained a loyal CSK player till the very end.

Also, catch all the highlights from the IPL auction here

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)

First Published:Feb 13, 2022 11:33 PM IST