Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
Piyush Chawla reveals why CSK bought him for Rs 6.75 crore
Chawla has played a crucial role in the rise of Kolkata Knight Riders and their two title winning seasons in 2012 and 2014. But an indifferent 2019 season meant KKR let go of the spinner.
Those who have followed leg spinner Spiyush Chawla’s career are aware of the fact that former India captain M ahendra Singh Dhoni has always had a soft spot for the tweaker. Chawla was a surprise pick in India’s 2011 ICC World Cup squad, which went on to win the trophy. He was also a member of the 2007 WT20 winning Indian squad and has been a top performer in the Indian Premier League. Chawla has 150 wickets to his name in 157 IPL matches and is tied for the third spot alongside Harbhajan Singh in the list of highest wicket takers in the tournament.
Chawla has played a crucial role in the rise of Kolkata Knight Riders and their two title winning seasons in 2012 and 2014. But an indifferent 2019 season meant KKR let go of the spinner.
With Chawla not getting any younger and having played his last international match way back in 2012, he wasn’t expected to be a hot commodity in the auction ahead of the 2020 season.
But contrary to those beliefs, Chawla turned out to be the costliest Indian player to go under the hammer at Rs 6.75 crore. There was three-way fight for the leg spinner but eventually Chennai Super Kings put in the winning bid.
READ | IPL 2019 Auction Full List
This was not the first time that Dhoni and CSK had tried to get Chawla on board. They had bid a sum of Rs 4.2 crore for him in the 2018 auction, only for KKR to use the Right to Match (RTM) card.
With Harbhajan, Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner and Ravindra Jaeja in their ranks, why did CSK go for another spinner? Chawla revealed, it was MS Dhoni who got him on board, during a chat with Sportskeeda.
“We were having a camp in Chennai just before the IPL was supposed to start. So, I had a discussion with him (Dhoni) regarding cricket, and that was like I asked him about the decision of me getting into CSK, and he told me that obviously it was my decision to take you to CSK,” Chawla said.
Chawla though will have to wait longer to make his CSK debut as the IPL 2020 remains postponed due to the coronavirus panemic.
