CSK's auction strategy boomerangs

IPL is not won on the auction table, but you can jolly well lose it there. More so, when a mega auction goes wrong.

- Rasesh Mandani

MUMBAI: Look no further than the woeful season of eliminated Chennai Super Kings this season to understand that. The five-time champions are languishing at the bottom of the points table after becoming the first team to be ruled out from the race to playoffs. Their botched auction that's left the Chennai franchise with gaping holes in the squad may have a lot to do with it.

Let's refresh our memory with a recap of CSK's work on the IPL 2025 auction table last November. For the first three hours of bidding, even as competitors made the headline buys, they kept losing bidding battles. This is where panic buying can set in.

In the next 23 minutes of bidding, CSK bought four players—Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, R Ashwin and Rachin Ravindra—to add to their five retentions (Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni). As it has turned out, none of the auction picks have added value.