 "R Ashwin retired from IPL after the 2025 season. Reuters")
R Ashwin has been accused of revealing the plan of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 auction that took place Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. CSK missed a few big names and had to shell out big sums for uncapped players in the auction. Some fans on social media have alleged that Ashwin had already leaked the franchise’s targets.
CSK paid Rs 14.2 crore each for the uncapped pair of Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer. Ashwin had predicted on his X account that the duo would be going to CSK just before the franchise actually won the bidding war.
READ | CSK IPL Auction 2026 Review: Chennai Super Kings break tradition with youth-heavy squad
However, it should be noted that having already missed some of their targets earlier, CSK had a lot of purse when Kartik and Veer came into the auction. The franchise broke the bank for the duo because they had the money and they had also missed a few players earlier.
Ashwin responds to allegations
Ashwin did not give any explanations but laughed at the accusations. Quoting a user’s post on X, Ashwin said: “How are you guys able to believe these lies?". He also added a couple of laughing emojis to show his amusement at such insinuations.
To another user who complained that it was because of Ashwin that CSK lost out on Jason Holder or Mustafizur Rahman, the legendary off-spinner again put out a humorous reply.
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View AllSince retiring from international cricket and IPL, Ashwin has become a social media sensation as he analyses matches and developments around cricket on his YouTube channel and on X.
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As for CSK, they also made some smart signings apart from the two big-budget buys. They signed Sarfaraz Khan (Rs 75 lakh), Matthew Short (Rs 1.5 crore), Zakary Foulks (Rs 75 lakh), Aman Khan (Rs 40 lakh), Rahul Chahar (Rs 5.2 crore), Hosein (Rs 2 crore) and Matt Henry (Rs 2 crore) to bolster their squad going into the next season.