IPL 2021 auction preview: Chennai Super Kings squad details

In 2020, Chennai Super Kings went through a season in the Indian Premier League like never before. They did not finish last in the end, but they were the first team to bow out of the playoffs race. It was the first season in their IPL history that they were not part of the post-season.

The CSK squad was pegged back by Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh’s withdrawals from the edition, followed by a Covid-19 outbreak in the camp that affected Ruturaj Gaikwad’s early form, before paying the price for sticking with an aged group of players who struggled to dust off their rustiness.

Results in last three seasons

Season	League stage finish	Playoff result
IPL 2018	2nd	Champions
IPL 2019	2nd	Lost in final
IPL 2020	7th	––

With Shane Watson retiring, and Kedar Jadhav enduring a poor season with the bat, and Harbhajan Singh in the twilight of his career, CSK parted ways with three fairly regular members of their squad. The squad has also brought in Robin Uthappa from Rajasthan Royals as an option at the top of the batting order.

Players released after IPL 2020: Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Monu Singh, Shane Watson
Player traded in: Robin Uthappa from RR

CSK squad for IPL 2021 ahead of auction

Batsmen	Bowlers	Wicketkeepers	Allrounders
Suresh Raina	Deepak Chahar	MS Dhoni	Dwayne Bravo
Ambati Rayudu	KM Asif	N Jagadeesan	Mitchell Santner
Faf du Plessis	Imran Tahir		Ravindra Jadeja
Ruturaj Gaikwad	Karn Sharma		Sam Curran
Robin Uthappa	Lungi Ngidi
	Shardul Thakur
	Josh Hazlewood
	R Sai Kishore

A glance at the squad makeup indicates that there are enough weaknesses throughout the squad if one is looking closely enough. Bravo’s best days might be behind him, so a couple of all-rounder options (one of them overseas) is also a slot to look for. Raina has barely played any cricket in the last couple of years and did not exactly light up the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy either.

In all honesty, the strength, once again, is in their spin department where they could look to play Santner more, especially if the tournament is to be played in India as it is expected.