Mumbai: IPL is not won on the auction table, but you can jolly well lose it there. More so, when a mega auction goes wrong. Look no further than the woeful season of eliminated Chennai Super Kings this season to understand that.

The five-time champions are languishing at the bottom of the points table after becoming the first team to be ruled out from the race to playoffs. Their botched auction that’s left the Chennai franchise with gaping holes in the squad may have a lot to do with it.

Let’s refresh our memory with a recap of CSK’s work on the IPL 2025 auction table last November. For the first three hours of bidding, even as competitors made the headline buys, they kept losing bidding battles. This is where panic buying can set in.

In the next 23 minutes of bidding, CSK bought four players – Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, R Ashwin and Rachin Ravindra – to add to their five retentions (Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni). As it has turned out, none of the auction picks have added value.

Now, Ashwin was marked for an emotional homecoming. But at 38, was he worth spending ₹9.75 crore on? Post international retirement, his batting form has nosedived. Even his Powerplay overs have been less incisive. Conway’s low scores at a poor strike rate are indicative of his low T20 utility. Tripathi’s hitting form has deserted him. Even Ravindra, after a promising IPL 2024 with CSK, has disappointed.

“The auction is like an untamed animal. It can go anywhere,” said Charu Sharma, who has conducted an auction as well as bid as a franchise.

It’s one of the reasons the more successful teams want to retain their core. With mega auctions – they come every four years – there are other teams keen to use the opportunity to overhaul their squads. But those retaining players also have to take a judgement call, whether players who were hits in the previous cycle will deliver again.

CSK retained their proven stars but at a high cost – over 50% of their allotted ₹120 crore purse. The most contentious retention was Jadeja, another player besides Dhoni who is past his T20 peak. While retaining Dhoni, a larger-than-life figure for the franchise, cost them only ₹4 crore, retaining Jadeja, 36, took away ₹18 crore – 15% of their purse.

Retaining Jadeja, recalling Ashwin and buying back Conway brings into question CSK’s old school philosophy of player investment for emotional connect. It could be argued that experience has paid off for CSK in the past. But the shifting sands of T20 cricket are hard to ignore.

CSK is a franchise that used to splurge in auctions and win the most expensive player in IPL’s early days – Dhoni (2008), Andrew Flintoff (2009), Jadeja (2012). With time, they have become more conservative.

“It is hard to say we got it (auction) completely right with the performances that we have had,” CSK head coach Stephen Fleming admitted after another defeat. “We’ve been looking over that in detail just around our style of play. Also looking at how the game is evolving.”

Not that CSK didn’t attempt to build a more competitive squad. There is a long list of players they went after in early trade, from Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook to KL Rahul. They simply didn’t have the purchasing power. They also unsuccessfully chased Glenn Maxwell, Jitesh Sharma, Abhinav Manohar and Mukesh Kumar.

Eventually, they had to settle for Khaleel Ahmed, Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda and Sam Curran. Without a pace spearhead, Khaleel, Mukesh Choudhary and Anshul Kamboj make only a makeshift Powerplay attack. Jamie Overton, who usually doesn’t bowl with the new ball for England, has had to take up that role.

While other teams are loaded with batting depth in the Impact Player era, CSK have had no firepower in the lower order. Jadeja and Dhoni’s runs are stifled by spin.

“Lot of these teams are extremely hung up about brand value, as if they are selling their stakes tomorrow. It influences selection,” said Sharma. “The biggest visibility star is MSD. CSK may point to a sea of yellow in the stands, the social media following. But it’s non-competitive. It doesn’t win you matches.”

CSK began to course correct midway through their gloomy season with two late replacements in the squad – Ayush Mhatre, 17, and Dewald Brevis, 22, are batters marked for bigger things.

Not making bold investment calls in the auction also points to their belief that experience trumps youth in the long run. This philosophy is undeniably being tested. “What we’re seeing now is more of a trial run for next season,” Ambati Rayudu, an old CSK hand, told Star Sports. “I don’t think CSK can carry forward most of their current squad — at best, seven or eight players might be retained.”

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com