IPL 2019: Chennai Super Kings' expected signings at the Player Auction

The defending champions Chennai Super Kings have almost covered all the bases even before the IPL 2019 player auction. The MS Dhoni-led team clinched the title for the third time in the previous season with a squad filled up with experienced players, most of them aged 30+. In the end, it was the experience of those players which worked for the team and they won the trophy.

Ahead of the new season, the franchise has retained as many as 23 players with the maximum squad strength being 25. In the player auction to be held on 18th December, the Super Kings have a purse of INR 8.4 crore to spend on a maximum of two players. They can’t buy any overseas players as they are operating at the limit of 8 foreigners in the squad.

Here we look at the players whom Chennai Super Kings could go for at the auction:

1. Manoj Tiwary:

One name that could attract the attention of CSK is Manoj Tiwary. The Bengal skipper has experience in hand and kept his base price at 50 lakhs to have maximum chances of getting a bid. CSK can go for Tiwary as the second option with everything they will be left with after their first pick. Tiwary surely would have impressed Dhoni with his batting during the time at RPS and his bowling might turn out to be a surprise package.

His experience can even help CSK to continue Ambati Rayudu as a regular opener given his exploits in the previous season. In fact, depending on the purse remaining, CSK might even go for Yuvraj Singh. The coming season could well be the last for Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj, the franchise has the chance to recreate the magic by getting the star trio to play together for one last time.

2. Jaydev Unadkat:

The left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat was an attraction prior to the 2018 IPL auction. He ended up earning 11.5 crores from Rajasthan Royals but it turned out to be quite a poor outing for him. However, having played under Dhoni, Unadkat could well find himself in CSK this time. The Saurashtra pacer fits in the role of an Indian pacer in the CSK squad.

The Chennai franchise hasn’t found a proper 2nd Indian pacer which was the only area of concern for them last season. Deepak Chahar was good at extracting swing early on in the innings while Shardul Thakur was inconsistent throughout the tournament. Unadkat’s inclusion will strengthen their bowling attack and back an already powerful batting.

With no other major concerns and no chances of taking an overseas player, CSK can go in with all of their purse for Unadkat. CSK were involved in a bidding war till 10.5 crore in the previous season before running out of money. Given his last season’s returns and wallet size available for each team, it will be tough for Unadkat to fetch more than Rs 7 crores.

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