New Delhi, India
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 mini-auction hogged the limelight on Friday (December 23). After much hullabaloo, the auction proceedings kicked off in Kochi, with the city hosting it for the first time ever, and saw some big names acquire whopping deals. England all-rounder and Test captain Ben Stokes went under the hammer in Kochi and was sold to the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
The CSK franchise entered the auction pool with INR 20.45 crore (INR 204.5 million). A franchise that always retains its core and goes for a selected few players in the auction, Chennai once again had its plans in place. They came in with a set plan, needing seven slots to fill (including two overseas players), and added the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Stokes, Kyle Jamieson, along with few uncapped players (Shaik Rasheed, Ajay Mandal, Bhagath Verma and Nishant Sindhu).
Also read: IPL 2023 mini-auction: Ben Stokes joins MS Dhoni's CSK, Yellow Army buys him for INR 16.25 crores
After the end of the IPL 2023 auction for the CSK line-up, they have assembled a brilliant squad with many all-rounders, despite not being able to reacquire Sam Curran (who went to the Punjab Kings for INR 18.5 crore). Their squad includes openers Devon Conway, and Ruturaj Gaikwad, able batters such as Ambati Rayudu, and Rahane, all-rounders comprising Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Kyle Jamieson, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Stokes, Shivam Mavi, etc. Deepak Chahar, also a power-hitter, will spearhead their bowling line-up with handy wicket-taking options such as Maheesh Theekshana, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, and the likes. They did miss out on re-buying Curran and Holder and even tried hard to add Mayank Agarwal to their line-up, however, CSK have serious depth in their arsenal for next year's IPL.
Full CSK squad for IPL 2023
MS Dhoni, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kyle Jamieson, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ben Stokes, Nishant Sindhu, Ajay Mandal, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Bhagath Verma
Remaining purse: INR 1.50 crore (INR 15 million)