IPL auctions 2020: Why Piyush Chawla might turn out to be a redundant buy for Chennai Super Kings

The IPL auction took place in a grand fashion on 19th December 2019, and the teams indeed spent huge sums to fill in the gaps in their respective squads. Kolkata Knight Riders broke the bank for Pat Cummins, spending a record INR 15.5 Crores for the Australian. Glenn Maxwell was bought for a staggering sum of INR 10.75 Crores by Punjab, the Royal Challengers spent a cool INR 10 Crores for Chris Morris, and Sheldon Cottrell was pouched by Kings XI Punjab for INR 8.5 Crores.

Among the Indian players, one man who has grabbed the spotlight is leg-spinner Piyush Chawla. The Chennai Super Kings spent INR 6.75 Crores for the diminutive spinner, and Chawla was indeed delighted to join the CSK camp. In fact, this is what Chawla had to say about his new team.

“As a player, you always want to be with a good team, play under a good captain and you can’t have a better team than CSK and a better leader than Mahi bhai. I can’t ask for more,” said the 30-year-old.

But then, have Chennai missed a trick by spending too much on Chawla?

Too many cooks

Ravindra Jadeja.

One look at the CSK squad tells that it is filled with spinners. The Chennai outfit has the likes of Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner and Karn Sharma who are potent with the ball. And, the addition of a sixth spinner to the squad in the form of Chawla could be a redundant move. Chennai cannot end up playing six spinners in a match, and that is why the addition of Chawla for such a huge sum may not justify his utility to the team.

Moreover, Chennai already have two wrist spinners in the form of the seasoned Imran Tahir and Karn Sharma. In fact, Karn Sharma just played one match for CSK through the whole of last year despite Chennai spending ₹5 Crores for him in the previous auction. This could well turn out to be a problem of plenty for the Chennai Super Kings outfit.

Chawla might well be smiling all the way to the bank, but the Chennai Super Kings have probably spent too much on a player whom they cannot put to use to the fullest.

The underutilised Karn Sharma.