Players Chennai Super Kings (CSK) can target in IPL 2025 Auction; possible strategy and squad analysis

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have done what they normally do before mega-auctions: retain their core. They effectively have six slots to fill in their eleven (seven if you consider the Impact Player), and a squad to form. A top-order batter who bowls spin (preferably off-spin), a couple of capped Indian pacers, possibly an overseas quick, and a foreign opener might form their wish-list.

CSK remaining purse : Rs 55 crore; RTM slots available: 1; Available player slots: 20 (Seven overseas)

IPL 2025 Auction: Chennai Super Kings Player targets

Devon Conway

A no-brainer. Conway and CSK are the perfect match and he proved that in their victorious 2023 campaign, finishing as their highest run-getter and winning the Player of the Match award in the final. Gaikwad complements him well, and Conway can also keep wickets. Plus, a CSK team would feel incomplete without a foreign opener.

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Rahul Tripathi

Another potentially archetypal CSK player: career stalling, nowhere near the national team, but with a point to prove. Tripathi can bat at three, and he can bat with the intent CSK sometimes lacked last year. Adept against pace and spin, he has previously worked with Dhoni and Stephen Fleming (at Rising Pune Supergiant), plays for the same state as Gaikwad, and strikes at close to 150 at Chepauk (in seven T20 innings).

Glenn Maxwell

A T20 superstar. CSK like their spin-bowling all-rounders and Maxwell ticks that box perfectly. At the last mega-auction, CSK were quite interested in Maxwell, until they were priced out of a deal, eventually pivoting towards Moeen Ali. In 2025, that could change, especially if they strike bargains elsewhere.

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Venkatesh Iyer

CSK have historically loved their left-handed top-order batters, irrespective of their nationality. Venkatesh will fit that bill, and he contributes in more than one facet, with his seam-bowling quite tidy. He could bat anywhere in the top four, thereby giving CSK choices and if he opens, he could take the game on, which would then allow Gaikwad to bat for longer.

Glenn Phillips

Phillips can do everything. Flexible as a batter and now a very handy off-spinner, he will give CSK lots of options. That he strikes at more than 140 in all T20 cricket and is possibly the best fielder on the planet, makes him a valued target for CSK.

Liam Livingstone

Another all-rounder that could (and probably should) be on CSK’s radar is Livingstone. He can bowl off-spin and leg-spin (based on match-ups), and can hit the ball an absolute mile, as he showed when the Punjab Kings hunted down a 200-plus score in a day game at Chepauk. He may not come cheap, but this is the type of player CSK will probably spend heavily on.

Wanindu Hasaranga

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and the ball spinning at Chepauk. So, it makes sense to have a world-class spinner in the eleven. And if that spinner can also function as a floater in the batting line-up, nothing like it. Hasaranga may, thus, be an excellent pick.

IPL 2025 Auction: Chennai Super Kings Auction Strategy

With just Rs 65 crore in their budget, CSK will have to wriggle their way through tricky bidding wars, perhaps distancing themselves from the marquee Indian players because of how expensive they could be. That could quash hopes of fans longing to see Rishabh Pant in yellow, or KL Rahul, whose T20I career needs resurrection.

CSK, though, may splash the cash on overseas players and hard-hitting all-rounders, in particular.

Conway, Rachin Ravindra or Maheesh Theekshana could be in the mix as their RTM options.

Among Indians, they will keep an eye out for batters and bowlers who either have a past history of working with the think-tank (or the franchise), or fit specific roles, with the rest of the squad being made up of nifty, uncapped buys.

CSK, by retaining five players, have a lesser purse to play with than some. But they rarely come away from a mega-auction with a poorly-constructed squad, which bodes well for them.