Robin Uthappa traded to CSK ahead of IPL 2021 Auction

Ahead of IPL 2021 Auction, Rajasthan Royals have traded the wicketkeeper-batsman Robin Uthappa to Chennai Super Kings in an all-cash deal for the upcoming season. The Kodagu-born batsman smacked 196 runs in 12 matches in the 13th edition of the IPL season. The walking assassin was tried in different batting positions in the previous edition.

This will be the sixth franchise for the keeper-batsman in the cash-rich league history. He started his IPL career with Mumbai Indians back in 2008 and later joined the RCB franchise for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Pune Warriors India bagged him for 2011, 2012, and 2013 seasons. He was later acquired by Kolkata Knight Riders for six seasons from 2014 to 2019. In 2020, he was a part of the RR team.

Revealing the trade news on Twitter, CSK came up with a tweet, writing, “Robin is our newest Bat-Man! Welcoming you with #Yellove Vanakkam.”

Here’s the tweet by the CSK franchise

Robin is our newest Bat-Man! Welcoming you with #Yellove Vanakkam @robbieuthappa! #WhistlePodu 🦁💛 pic.twitter.com/MYVpwvV2ZG

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) January 21, 2021

The Chennai-based franchise has the purse of 22.9 crores going into the IPL 2021 Auction. They have a total of seven slots available for the mini-auction with one being the overseas slot. With Robin Uthappa joining the franchise, it would be interesting to see who keeps the wickets. Interestingly, the franchise released Kedar Jadhav for the upcoming edition.

A total of six players have been released by the CSK team ahead of the upcoming mini-auction. The franchise is looking forward to building up the team for the future. One can expect the team management to pick some youngsters in the available slots.

In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2020-21 edition, Uthappa scored an impressive 91-run knock against Delhi, which helped his Kerala side to win that particular contest. Though Kerala failed to qualify for the quarter-finals of the tournament, Uthappa will remember the knock for many days to come.

List of retained CSK players

Narayan Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Josh Hazlewood, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Sai Kishore

List of released CSK players

Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Monu Kumar

Purse Available: 22.9 crores