IPL Auction 2020: Stephen Fleming says CSK's strategy was dictated by the activity of the other franchises

Chennai Super Kings' head coach Stephen Fleming, while talking on the Star Sports Cricket Live programming, stated that the team fell short of money and was dictated by what the other franchises wanted in the IPL 2020 Auction. CSK purchased only four players in the auction, the fewest of any team.

The Chennai-based franchise reinforced their bowling department by adding Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood, Piyush Chawla and R Sai Kishore. With just ₹14.60 crores in the purse, they completed their overseas quota and recruited Indian leggies in Chawla and Sai Kishore.

Fleming has now revealed how the management had to play the waiting game while looking for players, due to their paucity of funds.

We didn’t have a lot of money and we were dictated a little bit by what others want so we had to play the waiting game on big players that fit nicely into our team.

Chawla, who ended his six-year association with KKR before the auction, got signed by CSK for a whopping ₹6.75 crore. Chawla is one of the most successful leggies in the IPL with 150 wickets to his name in the league.

Piyush Chawla

Fleming talked about why the addition of Chawla was crucial to the side, and how they could now use plenty of bowling options to suit different surfaces and conditions.

Piyush has history with the captain and is a world class bowler so we have always favoured spinners and we just had to make the right choices. We have different types of spinners, but we have got to make some decisions now around how we use them. There are also other options within the competition, so that we can maximise their talent.

We wanted Piyush. We rate him very highly with what he does with the bat as well. So it’s nice to have him in the squad. Spin has been good for us. At home, we have got to mix it around how we want to play. But when we go away, we want to have most bases covered from the Indian and international options from where we can pick and choose.

CSK smartly invested ₹5.50 crore on the talented Englishman Sam Curran, in what many regard as their best purchase in the auction.

Curran, who was signed up by Kings XI Punjab for ₹7.2 crore last year, got released by the team eventually. A left-arm quick who can also hit the ball big while batting lower down the order, Curran was brought on-board by CSK to take up the role of finisher.

Sam Curran

Fleming revealed how Curran was on their radar, as they were looking for a player to bring balance to the side.

Sam Curran is really good for us. Left armer and chips in with his cutters and his batting and we think he is a very nice addition.

Curran and (Dwayne) Bravo in the middle gives us options. We have a couple of pieces to add in the team. We are pretty comfortable, we are just looking at adding to what we have got and enhance certain areas to make it more flexible in different conditions.

With such a star-studded line-up and plenty of spin bowling options for their home turf, Chennai Super Kings will yet again be a team to watch out for in the upcoming IPL 2020 season.