IPL Auction 2020: Grading each franchise based on their performance

#2 Chennai Super Kings - Auction Grade: C

India v England: Group B - 2011 ICC World Cup

Players bought: Sam Curran(5.50 Cr), Piyush Chawla(6.75 Cr), Josh Hazlewood(2 Cr), Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore(20 Lac)

One of the more successful franchises in the IPL, Chennai Super Kings is right behind Mumbai Indians in the list of titles with 3 to its name.

Like Mumbai, breaking into this Chennai team is tough as nails and skipper MS Dhoni rarely likes making changes to his playing 11. The new signings from this auction will have to sweat it out if they ever want to step on the field donning the Super Kings jersey.

English all-rounder Sam Curran will be a breath of fresh air in a team filled with veterans. The youngster though will have the tough task of toppling seasoned campaigner Dwayne Bravo for a spot in the starting eleven. He'll most probably end up as a backup for Bravo.

Piyush Chawla's acquisition by Chennai for a sum of 6.75 Crore is going to take some explaining as they already have 3 starting spinners(Jadeja, Tahir, Harbhajan) one of whom is a leggie. They also have a back-up leggie(Karn Sharma) whose acquisition cost 5 crores in the 2018 auction.

Josh Hazlewood is without a doubt a world-class bowler in the longest format of the game and his acquisition at 2 crores may seem quite shrewd but his purchase for a high-profile T20 event does raise eyebrows when his last recorded T20 match was in 2016.

While their batting line-up may be one of the best in the league, it will be interesting to see if there is any regression in their pace bowling attack which punched way above its weight last season and hasn't been provided with any new upgrades from the auction this year.