The 2026 IPL auction saw a paradigm shift in Chennai Super Kings’ philosophy. They went to the auction with a purse of Rs 43.4 crore and spent Rs 28.4 crore of those to sign up two uncapped young Indian cricketers. Prashant Veer, 20, and Kartik Sharma, 19, became CSK players for Rs 14.2 crore each. The changed philosophy started to take shape midway into the last season, through the acquisitions of Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel and Dewald Brevis. As head coach Stephen Fleming said at the press conference in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the game has evolved and the five-time champions were a little late to react. CSK are no longer the dad’s army, as they opened their heart and hearth to “T20 babies”, to quote Fleming. A day after the auction, Kasi Viswanathan, the franchise chief executive, offered insights into the planning, as he spoke to RevSportz. Excerpts:
Q: A clear change in the team philosophy, are CSK preparing for life after MS Dhoni?
A: No, I won’t say that, MS is still very much part of it. We felt that we needed to embrace youth, but if you look at our squad, there’s still enough experience. I would say we now have the right mix of youth and experience. We have Ruturaj (Gaikwad), Sanju (Samson), Shivam Dube, Khaleel Ahmed and of course MS to provide experience. And then we have these talented youngsters.
Q: Prashant and Kartik, it felt like you were never letting them go to another franchise.
A: Yes, we tracked them and we went all out for them. We were clear that we needed to have them. In fact, it was the reason why we stopped bidding for Cameron Green.
Q: Did you expect that the bids would rise to Rs 14 crore for the two youngsters?
A: In Prashant’s case, we didn’t expect it. But Kartik, we knew it would be like that, given his profile. We were determined to get them.
Q: You were ready to break the bank for Green. But eventually, was it a case that Rs 25.2 crore proved to be a little too much? Also, missing out on him, do you consider it a setback?
A: I won’t call it a setback. We needed an overseas player of that profile and decided to go hard at the auction. But after a point, it was beyond our budget. The main focus was to have the Indian uncapped players that we targeted. So that played a part in our decision.
Q: Do you have a similar profile in the team, an overseas seam-bowling all-rounder?
A: We have Jamie Overton, and we believe that he can fit into that role.
Q: CSK added nine players to the squad. Are you happy with the way the auction panned out?
A: Yes, we followed our strategy and it has met our expectations.
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