The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) value familiarity. And there’s no greater testament to that cold, hard fact than the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. From the get-go, the backroom of the men in yellow made it clear that this was a team that was going back to its stars, And how empathetically it did.
Forget for a moment that the likes of Dhoni, Jadeja, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Moeen Ali were retained weeks before the auction began. The auction dynamics on display suggested that CSK was almost sore that it couldn’t retain more of its core.
The manner in which the team went back for 36-year-old Ambati Rayudu for a considerably high valuation of Rs 6.75 crore, for instance,, or 38-year-old Dwayne Bravo for Rs 4.4 crore — even engaging in a bit of a two-way bidding war for him with Delhi Capitals for the latter — was all that anyone needed to know that CSK wanted the old team back. The bonus: a nice little heist in snatching Robin Uthappa for his base price of Rs 2 crore.
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The knockout punch, however, came in the CSK notching up their largest-ever purchase in going for Deepak Chahar for a whopping Rs 14 crore — almost as if to say “we couldn’t retain you, but we will go to the ends of the earth to buy you back”. And in a nutshell, that’s the philosophy of the team: “We are a closely-knit unit, and we like to stay that way”.
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However, it would only be fair to say that several decisions the Chennai Super Kings made are questionable at the very least. Take Chahar himself, for instance. Was a bowler who averaged 32 and bowled at a economy rate of 8.35 through IPL 2021 worth Rs 14 crore, his batting exploits notwithstanding?
Why did CSK not bid hard enough for familiar Faf Du Plessis (second-highest run-scorer in IPL 2021) when they went all out for Rayudu for pretty much the same price? The team recognises the need for Ruturaj Gaikwad, an explosive opening partner, so where was the aggressive bidding for a Johnny Bairstow or a Jason Roy? How and why was David Warner let go of without a fight? Indian pitches aid quality spin bowling, so how is there no specialist spinner in the squad barring the likes of Jadeja and Moeen Ali?
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The questions for CSK will come thick and fast. But there’s one fact that’s as clear as daylight: CSK play on instinct and with emotion, without giving much importance to analytics, too much team talk or strategising. So far, it’s a formula that’s worked for them and one they hope will keep working in the times to come.
(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)
First Published: Feb 13, 2022 11:29 AM IST
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