Shardul Thakur was a steal, in Aakash Chopra’s perspective, for the Chennai Super Kings that got him at the IPL 2024 auction. Shardul Thakur had been acquired by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for a mere ₹4 crore at the auction in the Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai, on Tuesday.
Shardul Thakur has played for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) during 2018–2021, for Delhi Capitals (DC) during the 2022 IPL, and then Having been traded to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) from Delhi Capitals (DC) last season.
Shardul Thakur did not have the best of seasons With 7 wickets in 11 games last year at a meager economy rate of 10.48 runs per over. In one game, he smashed a match-winning half-century , but he also had to struggle with injuries.
Shardul Thakur was a Terrific Deal for CSK- Aakash Chopra
In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra expressed his views that Shardul Thakur was a terrific deal for the Chennai Super Kings, given that the Punjab Kings paid an enormous price to get Harshal Patel.
“They (CSK) surprised a little when they were going for Travis Head but picked Rachin Ravindra – well done. Shardul Thakur was a steal for them. Shardul Thakur for four crores whereas Harshal Patel went for 11.75 crores,” he elaborated (5:10).
The other players acquired by the defending champions were Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, and Avanish Rao Aravelly. Further talking about that, the former Indian opener said that MS Dhoni and company are looking for a backup to Moeen Ali, as they bought Daryl Mitchell for ₹14 crore.
“They picked Daryl Mitchell in the middle. It seems like they are looking at him as an option for Moeen Ali. He is not like-for-like but even if you don’t get Moeen’s bowling, you get a middle-order batter who can hit very good strokes,” he added.
Chopra went on to say that CSK has gotten better and shouldn’t be taken lightly. He stated that they have most departments covered, particularly since they have added Mustafizur Rahman to strengthen their seam-bowling unit.
It seemed like RCB would get stuck – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra then turned his focus to the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who don’t have a great auction during this time, emphasizing how lucky they were to lose out to the SunRisers Hyderabad in the hunt to sign Pat Cummins.
“Their job got done towards the end. It seemed like they would get stuck. They went after Pat (Cummins) and as soon as Hyderabad bought Pat, I said Bangalore should thank them, because they (RCB) shouldn’t have picked him,” he stated (6:00).
Cricketer turned commentator than added that because RCB couldn’t get Cummins, they were able to purchase a couple seamers. He pointed that :
“If you had bought him for 20-odd crores, how would you have made a team – you had 23-odd crores in total. They bought Alzarri Joseph, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal and Tom Curran. So they have eventually assembled their fast-bowling gang.”
With Mayank Dagar and Karn Sharma as their main choices, Chopra believes that RCB is a little weak in the spin-bowling area. However, he also noted that they have a wide range of seam-bowling options, including Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Reece Topley, Lockie Ferguson, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, and Vyshak Vijaykumar.
As the IPL 2024 auction created a buzz among the cricketing world for the upcoming IPL season to come in March 2024. It would be interesting to see that how the how do players live up to the expectations and trust shown by the team management!
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