Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla has managed to find a team in Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the auction on Thursday (December 19) in Kolkata after he was not retained by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
Chawla turned out to be a surprise hit at the IPL Auction 2020 with the Chennai-based franchise signing the leg-spinner for a whopping Rs 6.75 crore, making him one of the most expensive Indian buys at the auction in Kolkata.
After buying Chawla, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming admitted that captain MS Dhoni’s equation with the spin bowler was one of the major reasons behind trading hard for him at the auction. Rating the seasoned leg-spinner very highly, Fleming revealed that the move was a well-thought-out decision as CSK heavily rely on the spinners in Chepauk's low and slow wicket.
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Fleming said on Thursday, “We traded very hard (for Chawla) and certainly the captain has a great relationship with him. He's proven that he's a quality leg-spinner which we value very highly.”
The CSK coach continued, “He's a different type of bowler than Karn Sharma. We also had to make some decisions around how all fit in but it was an opportunity that came up and we took it. We have a pretty well-balanced squad. We've always favored spin, our home ground is very spin dominant, so having a lot of spinners is not a bad thing.”
Meanwhile, the former New Zealand cricketer said the CSK went for Sam Curran, who was bought for Rs 5.5 crore, for his all-round abilities, as they didn't have a lot of money for Pat Cummins coming with only Rs 14.60 crore at purse with five (three domestic, two overseas) slots remaining.
The coach further said of Curran’s signing, “Well, there were a lot of players...(Pat) Cummins is one that I think most people identified but we didn't have a lot of money. So we had to be very smart. Sam Curran we liked. Yes, he's a left-arm seamer who can bat. He has a great attitude towards the game, he really gets into the game. He played well against us in the past. He's playing well for England. So he fits in nicely with Bravo in that sort of seven-eight position.”
Fleming also said CSK went for Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood at auction to only add more fire into their bowling attack and he is happy with his squad for the upcoming IPL 2020.
He signed off by saying, “And getting Hazlewood at the end is to add a little bit of firepower with (Lungi) Ngidi. Like other teams, we are just trying to add some pieces and then just work through the combinations. You can get confused but we're actually pretty happy with our group. So it was just a case of trying to add a few things different.”
(With PTI Inputs)
