Auction review: CSK

 Aww that family reunion, but...

Having retained MSD - I think more out of emotional connect and commercial strategy - CSK were already handicapped by 12cr when they went into the auction. Adding that to the retention fees for Jadeja, Moeen and Ruturaj and the handicap looked mammoth. With 48cr on hand and almost a full team to recruit - given they had picked an opener, an aging captain, an aging all-rounder and a good player whose availability could always be a point of contention - they were continually cautious throughout the two days.

 

And when they picked up Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu and Robin Uthappa - it was getting clear. Get them all back and at any cost. But then what baffled me and most of the fans was the decision to ignore Suresh Raina. If anything, Raina came with more CSK experience, more T20 expertise and a spin option - something Robin Uthappa lacked. Did they really decide against going for Raina or were they holding cash for later? Moments later, they let long term star Faf Du Plessis slip through to be captured by arch rivals RCB - another shocker for the fans.

Then came the moments the fans were looking forward to - a CSK like show. On came Deepak Chahar under the hammer and fans had fingers crossed. They were hoping CSK would go for the kill here. But CSK did not dive in from the word go. They kept everyone on their tenterhooks even as the bids from other teams breached the 10cr mark. And then the hero made his entry. SRH gave up, DC gave up and RR jumped in only to give up as Chahar hit 14cr. I can imagine the yellow roar when the auctioneer announced that Chahar was heading to Chepauk.

Just as we were thinking that CSK were back, the next few bids(and non-bids) they made seemed to suggest that they had already settled on what they wanted. All their next few bids were feeble shots to check if they got lucky. Only Shivam Dube's pick and a later splurge for Chris Jordan looked anything close to a fight being put up by CSK. And we could see a Kiwi(Fleming) influence in the picks of Mitchell Santner and Adam Milne. 

All in all, except for the excitement of the Chahar pick, it was a lot less sombre from CSK this time. Despite investing high on MSD, CSK were continuing to look for a wicket keeper throughout and missed. 3 years from now with Dhoni at 41, he must definitely need an able keeper to fill in his shoes. The make-shift Rayudu isn't choices they should be relishing. Let's hope some Dhoni magic sets in here so he can groom N Jagadeesan as a worthy successor - only as a keeper. He'd still need to find a replacement skipper, a replacement finisher, a replacement middle-order batsman, a replacement guide, a replacement calming influence, a replacement brain... the list goes on. Definitely multi-faceted!

Probable XI: Conway, Ruturaj, Moeen, Rayudu, Jadeja, Dhoni (C, WK), Dube, Chahar, Santner/Theekshana, Milne/Jordan, Hangargekar/Asif