• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Ipl Auctions 2024 Ashwin Suggests A Batter Ms Dhoni Would Love As Rayudus Replacement

IPL Auctions 2024 | Ashwin Suggests A Batter MS Dhoni Would Love As Rayudu's Replacement

image-lpp3qhzlMSD alongside Rayudu and Jadeja (iplt20.com)

The auctions for Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) is just around the corner, with the showpiece event scheduled in Dubai on December 19. All the franchises have various tick-boxes they need to check for the IPL season, and one of those franchises is MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Chennai last year levelled the Mumbai Indians' record of five trophies, but they had to let off quite some names who all helped them bag their fifth IPL trophy. One of those few cricketers is Ambati Rayudu - who retired after the IPL 2023 final, and now Chennai are left with his shoes to fill. 

Without Rayudu and Ben Stokes, the five-time champs are left without a batter who could bat at number 4 or 5, thumping his class against both seamers and spinners. Interestingly, they still have the likes of Moeen Ali and Shivam Dube through their ranks, but Chennai will look to fill the Rayudu void in the upcoming auctions.

While commenting on the issue, former CSK player Ravichandran Ashwin suggested Karun Nair and Shahrukh Khan's names as Rayudu's replacement. The Chennai-born off-spinner further cited the former would be better suited to CSK's plan.

"They (CSK) are searching for a replacement for Ambati Rayudu. Shahrukh (Khan) is not a replacement for him at No.4. I have no idea who they are going to play in that position this season. They might try a left-hand option but if you look at CSK's track record, they have never gone for an unknown commodity. They have never played anybody who just did well in their first season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. So Karun Nair, folks, brace yourself to see him in yellow," said Ashwin on his Youtube channel.

The Rajasthan Royals all-rounder also explained why Nair is the perfect fit for the Super Kings and what prowess of Nair's Dhoni will love.

"He is somebody who can play spin well, who could sweep and reverse sweep. MS Dhoni loves it when there is a batter who can play between the top order and the middle order in the No.4 slot, especially in Chennai. I feel Karun Nair is perfect for that. I haven't really seen Manish Pandey play spin too much in Chennai but Karun Nair, remember has a triple hundred in a Test match played in Chennai," Ashwin added.

Heading into the auctions, Chennai have a whopping purse of 31.40 crores left for the bidding war, where they are to buy just six players. However, apart from a solid middle-order batter, they also have to target some pacers at the auction table.