Chennai Super Kings who are the defending champions in IPL 2022 managed to build a full squad of 25 players in the Mega Auction which took place on 12th and 13th February in Bangalore. Their main strategy was to get back the players which were part of the CSK franchise over the last few years and they managed to do that to a greater extent. In fact, their first four picks were part of the CSK playing XI in the IPL 2021 Final. They managed to get back 8 out of the 11 players who played the IPL 2021 Final.
Chennai Super Kings had retained four players before the Auction which included the likes of Ravindra Jadeja (16 CR), MS Dhoni (12 CR), Moeen Ali (8 CR), and Ruturaj Gaikwad (6 CR). They had a purse of 48 CR before the Auction started. In the marquee set, they tried to get Faf Du Plessis, Quinton De Kock, and David Warner but backed out around the 4 CR mark. In the next few sets, they managed to buy their three key players – Robin Utthapa for 2 CR, Dwayne Bravo for 4.4 CR, and Ambati Rayudu for 6.75 CR.
CSK was waiting for Deepak Chahar and once his name came up in the auction, they broke their bank and bought him for a whopping 14 CR. Chahar became the most expensive Indian fast bowler in the history of the IPL. They have spent 14 CR for Deepak Chahar but he might miss the majority of the IPL due to the injury which he suffered in the 3rd T20I against West Indies. This would be a huge blow to the CSK team who had their whole auction planned around Deepak Chahar. They tried to get Shardul Thakur but couldn’t get him as he went way beyond their budget. They did bid for a few young Indians like Nitish Rana, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Shahrukh Khan, and even Rahul Tewatia but didn’t get anyone.
On Day 2, Chennai Super Kings made some real value buys as they added the likes of Mahesh Theekshana from Sri Lanka for 70 Lakhs, Shivam Dube for 4 CR as the seam bowling all-rounder, and Rajvardhan Hangargekar who had a great U19 World Cup for 1.5 CR. They went hard for N Tilak Verma but lost the bidding war to Mumbai Indians.
Later on, they got two Kiwi players – Devon Conway for 1 CR and Adam Milne for 1.9 CR who should be part of their probable XI. Apart from that they bought back Mitchell Santner for 1. 9 CR and acquired the services of Chris Jordan for 3.6 CR. They have added a lot of uncapped Indians keeping in mind the future. The only player they didn’t buy was Suresh Raina who has been part of the Chennai Super Kings squad since 2008.
Final Squad: Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali*, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo*, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, Shivam Dube, Mahesh Theekshana*, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Simarjeet Singh, Devon Conway*, Dwaine Pretorius*, Mitchell Santner*, Adam Milne*, Subhranshu Senapati, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, Hari Nishanth, N Jagdeeshan, Chris Jordan*, Bhagat Verma
Total Squad Size: 25 – 17 Indians and 8 Overseas
Purse Remaining: 2.95 CR
Probable XI: Devon Conway*, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali*, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Utthapa / Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni (C, WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo*, Deepak Chahar, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Adam Milne*
