S Badrinath Slams CSK Strategy, Questions Letting KL Rahul Go for Just ₹50 Lakh More

Former CSK player Subramaniam Badrinath has torn into the team's auction strategy, questioning why they let KL Rahul go for just 50 lakhs more but spent crores on inexperienced players.

Chennai: With Chennai Super Kings (CSK) putting up one poor performance after another in the IPL, former CSK player Subramaniam Badrinath has slammed the team's auction strategy. He specifically called out the management for hesitating to sign Delhi opener KL Rahul in the 2025 auction, only to then spend a massive amount on two inexperienced young players.

During the IPL auction, CSK was in a tough bidding war with Delhi Capitals for KL Rahul. However, CSK pulled out after bidding up to 13.5 crore, and Delhi eventually got Rahul for 14 crore. What's baffling is that in the same auction, CSK shelled out 14.20 crore each (a total of 28.40 crore) for two uncapped youngsters, Karthik Sharma and Prashant Veer. This is what irked Badrinath.

"You gave more than 14 crore each for Karthik Sharma and Prashant Veer. But what did you do with KL Rahul in the mega auction? You bid up to 13.5 crore, and Delhi took him for 14 crore. If you had spent just 50 lakhs more, KL Rahul would have been in Chennai," Badrinath said. "You hesitate to spend 14 or 15 crore for KL Rahul, but you give the same price for an uncapped youngster in a mini-auction. Is this the 'process' that Chennai always talks about?" he asked.

Badrinath added that if Rahul was in the team, CSK would have been much stronger and wouldn't be in a situation where they might have to release big players like Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran (worth around 20 crore) to get someone like Sanju Samson. KL Rahul is one of the league's top batsmen, with 5,755 runs in 158 IPL matches at an average of over 46 and a strike rate of 139.

Badrinath also sharply criticised some of CSK's other auction decisions. He said CSK was 'lucky' that Mumbai Indians bought the out-of-form Indian pacer Deepak Chahar, whom Chennai was trying hard to get. He pointed out that the auction strategy has been a failure for the last three years, noting how players like Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, and Rahul Tripathi performed poorly and had to be released before the 2026 auction.

CSK has failed to reach the playoffs for the last two seasons and even finished at the bottom of the points table last year. This season, with only one league match remaining, they are in seventh place. The team is now on the verge of missing the playoffs for a third consecutive time.

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