IPL Auction 2022: Why Chahar got Rs 14 crore and Dhoni was retained for Rs 12 crore

All-rounder Deepak Chahar not only earned more bucks as compared to MS Dhoni but also became the costliest player ever bought by CSK at an IPL auction, in an intense and long opening day of the mega auction, in Bengaluru, on Saturday.

"Really happy to be back in CSK and thank you so much Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) and management for showing faith in me. I couldn't imagine playing for another team. I only wanted to play for CSK," Chahar said in a video tweeted by CSK official handle.

Holders Chennai Super Kings forked out Rs 14 crore for the bowling all-rounder, while they retained MS Dhoni for Rs 12 crore. For CSK, the aim was to follow Mahendra Singh Dhoni's template and retain their core base of players as much as possible as they waited to buy back Deepak, a multi-skilled cricketer on the ascendancy for India. Chahar, with his impeccable powerplay wicket-taking ability and being a part of CSK's set template of experienced players, was a no-brainer.

But how did Chahar become more expensive than Dhoni?

According to SportsKeeda, Chahar was first bought by Rajasthan Royals in 2011, when he was signed for Rs 10 lakh. Although he was in the squad for two seasons, he wasn't allowed to play a single match. After being away from the league for four years, the seamer bagged a Rs 80 lakh deal from CSK in 2018. However, CSK could not retain him despite his match-winning performances due to mega auction rules, which mandate that each team can retain a maximum of four players.

CSK retained Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 16 crore), MS Dhoni (Rs 12 crore), Moeen Ali (Rs 8 crore), Ruturaj Gaikwad (Rs 6 crore).

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With decent performance stats in the past season, the youngster is capable of bowling four overs upfront and is likely to prove economical in death overs too. CSK needed the Powerplay specialist for their bowling attack. His batting lower down the order also adds value to his game.

Meanwhile, the team bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji said the think-tank was happy with the buys from the first day of the auction, where Chennai brought back many of their core players from last year like Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu, Deepak Chahar and KM Asif apart from Tushar Deshpande.

"The core players are very important. Rayudu, Deepak and Bravo, they do multi-activity jobs and give options like middle-order, bowling as well as top-order and flexible players. So, those are the three players where more focus was on the first front. We did go for a couple of players where it was hit and miss, which we kind of expected," said Balaji in the virtual press conference.

(With agency inputs)