Bangalore: The defending champions Chennai Super Kings have stuck to their template of buying back their core and haven’t made much of a change from the combination that worked for them in a largely successful 2018-21 cycle.
Devon Conway is set to play the role of Faf Du Plessis, Shivam Dube could be a more batting-oriented version of Shardul Thakur, and Adam Milne a pacier replacement for Josh Hazlewood.
Suresh Raina was not picked by the franchise at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. He went unsold in the first round and did not found an interest from CSK in the acceleration round as well.
Raina was popularly known as Chinna Thala by the Super Kings fans and with him not there in 2022, the fans have become very emotional. Raina and skipper MS Dhoni’s journey in CSK comes to an end.
England’s Liam Livingstone became the most expensive foreign player in this season’s IPL auction at Rs 11.50 crore, while national teammate Jofra Archer also fetched a high price despite being doubtful for the upcoming edition.
Livingstone went to Punjab Kings as the 10 teams splurged millions but the final day witnessed England white-ball stars including Eoin Morgan and Dawid Malan going unsold.
Australia opener David Warner was bought by Delhi Capitals (DC) during the Indian Premier League 2022 (IPL 2022) mega auction over the weekend. The former SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper was acquired by the franchise from the national capital for a fee of Rs 6.25 crore. Warner, who had led SRH to the IPL title in 2016, was released by the Hyderabad-based franchise ahead of the 2022 mega auction following a tumultuous final season. In IPL 2021, Warner struggled for form and was eventually dropped as captain and also from the playing XI.
DC have got more variety with the ball to make up for the potency of their former attack. The power-hitting in the lower middle-order will be tested. Thakur has never been such an important cog of a team before.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squad: MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Bravo, Robin Uthappa, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Simarjeet Singh, Devon Conway, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Subhranshu Senapati, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Chris Jordan, K Bhagath Varma.
