IPL 2025 Auction: CSK squad analysis
It was a season of reunion at Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2025 mega-auction. They re-signed Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, and Mukesh Choudhary from the 2024 squad and brought in past players Ravichandran Ashwin, Vijay Shankar, and Sam Curran. They have strengthened the bowling unit by signing Khaleel Ahed, Noor Ahmad, and Anshul Kamboj in addition to already retained Matheesha Pathirana and Ravindra Jadeja.
Rahul Tripathi, who’s hoping for a revamp, will take Ajinkya Rahane’s position of number three but their concern will be the middle order that features Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar, and Deepak Hooda. They can be inconsistent but Chennai is known to bring out the best in players and will be hoping to see all of them fire throughout the 2025 season.
Their spin-bowling unit particularly looks very strong. On the spin-friendly tracks of MA Chidambaram Stadium, Ashwin, Jadeja, and Noor will wreak havoc and that is one area that the five-time champions will look forward to capitalise. For away matches, where there’s more support for the pacers, Nathan Ellis can play ahead of Noor and Kamlesh Nagarkoti can be preferred ahead of Ashwin if required.
Current squad strength: 25
Indian players: 18
Overseas players: 7
Retained players (5): Ruturaj Gaikwad (18 Cr), Ravindra Jadeja (18 Cr), Matheesha Pathirana (13 Cr), Shivam Dube (12 Cr), MS Dhoni (4 Cr)
Players bought in the auction (20): Noor Ahmad (10 Cr), Ravichandran Ashwin (9.75 Cr), Devon Conway (6.25 Cr), Khaleel Ahmed (4.80 Cr), Rachin Ravindra (4 Cr), Rahul Tripathi (3.40 Cr), Anshul Kamboj (3.40 Cr), Vijay Shankar (1.20 Cr), Sam Curran (2.40 Cr), Gurjapneet Singh (2.20 Cr), Nathan Ellis (2 Cr), Deepak Hooda (1.70 Cr), Jamie Overton (1.50 Cr), Vansh Bedi (55L), Mukesh Choudhary (30L), Shreyas Gopal (30L), Ramakrishna Ghosh (30L), Kamlesh Nagarkoti (30L), Andre Siddharth (30L), Shaik Rasheed (30L)
