Franchises before the IPL 2026 mini auction are preparing themselves in full flow. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is among the first few franchises that started their preparations for the upcoming season long ago. After a major setback in IPL 2025, the multi-time IPL-winning franchise is expected to perform some big moves ahead of the new season of the Indian Premier League. 

In a recent development, it is claimed that the Chennai-based franchise is all set to release an overseas duo to rebuild their squad. This move can be marked as their desire to restructure the top-order batting and all-rounder departments. According to fresh claims, Devon Conway and Jamie Overton can take an exit from the club ahead of the mini auction. Both of the foreign players were trusted members of the squad during the previous season. 

Conway has been a constant figure in the Chennai Super Kings camp since IPL 2022. The top-order batter from New Zealand was not at his best during IPL 2025. In 6 games, the batter scored only 156 runs at an average of 26.00, which was far away from the level of expectations. CSK's one of the major reasons for their downfall was their inconsistent top batting order. The stats of Conway are a clear hint of that. Though, in IPL 2023 and IPL 2024, the southpaw performed exceptionally well. 

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CSK to release Devon Conway and Jamie Overton ahead of IPL 2026?

Now if we talk about Jamie Overton, IPL 2025 was the debut Indian Premier League season of the bowling all-rounder, where he went to participate only in 3 matches. In 3 matches, he did not manage to take any wicket with his bowling work and scored only 15 runs with the bat. 

If we compare the stats of these two cricketers, then the CSK management has enough reasons to release Overton. But the situation can be different for Conway, as he served the team brilliantly in the past. As of now, official announcements are yet to come.  

A joyful day for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) fans. One of their bowlers from the IPL 2025 squad has taken a hat-trick during the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2025 second round. The record-making bowling came during the Tamil Nadu vs Nagaland match at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Karnataka.

It was the left-arm pacer Gurjapneet Singh who wrecked havoc during the first innings of Nagaland. He took the wickets of Sedezhalie Rupero, Hem Chetri, and Captain Rongsen Jonathan on Day 2 of the match. The wicket has some grass on it, which perhaps was enough for the pacer to move the ball in both ways. The way he bowled out Rupero was worth taking another look at.

After the end of Day 2, Tamil Nadu is maintaining their lead by 362 runs. They went to bat first in the match and scored a massive total of 512 runs in exchange for only 3 wickets. Nagaland was already under pressure because of the mammoth total when they walked onto the ground with the bat. Singh bagged the hat trick in the 6th over of the innings before clinching the wicket of Chetan Bist. So far, after delivering 12 overs, the pacer claimed 4 wickets at an economy rate of 2.83. 

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Hat-trick for CSK pacer Gurjapneet Singh

Chennai Super Kings signed Gurjapneet for the 2025 Indian Premier League season. But due to a serious injury, he was ruled out of the season before making an IPL debut. In place of the injured pacer, CSK brought Dewald Brevis into the squad.

Singh was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for Rs. 2.2 crore at the 2025 IPL Super Auction. Will the team management retain the promising cricketer ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction? CSK fans will be curious to know. 

Ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction, teams have started their team build-up process. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is one of the few clubs that started their preparations early for the upcoming season. According to a recent video, a forgotten Indian fast bowler is spotted in a net session wearing a CSK training kit. 

Chennai Super Kings suffered a very tough situation during IPL 2025. The five-time IPL-winning franchise finished at the bottom of the league table, which was absolutely embarrassing for the five-time IPL-winning franchise. Before the conclusion of the season, they started their rebuild process by signing a few emerging talents like Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis. Both of the batters proved their talents without wasting any time in the yellow shirt. It is obvious that CSK will do some more reinforcement work in their batting department. To make a solid comeback, they may have to increase their bowling and bench strength. 

According to a recently shared video on social media platforms, Kamalesh Nagarkoti is spotted in a CSK training kit during his bowling practice. A few years back, Nagarkoti was considered one of the brightest upcoming fast bowlers in Indian cricket. But a series of injuries never allowed the pace bowler to take forward steps in his career. 

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Kamalesh Nagarkoti to join CSK? 

Kamalesh Nagarkoti practicing in CSK training kit 💛 pic.twitter.com/JgDIewH8j3

— Prakash (@definitelynot05) October 26, 2025

The Rajasthan-born was a sensational talent during various age group cricket. He had the ability to maintain a speed over 140 KMPH, with the capacity to bowl close to 150 KMPH with good line and length. But repeated injuries derailed his career. 

Nagarkoti made his Indian Premier League debut in the 2020-21 season for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He participated in 10 matches and took 5 wickets. In the following two seasons, he had to again deal with injuries and played only a total of 2 matches. After spending a couple of seasons with KKR, the fast bowler moved to Delhi Capitals in IPL 2022, and after a season gap, Kamlesh joined CSK for IPL 2024 but did not play a single game. As of now, there is no strong evidence that CSK has any intention to cash in for the injury-prone pacer again. 

Sanju Samson remains in the center of discussions among cricket fans ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction. It is now strongly believed that the Keeper-batter's stint with Rajasthan Royals (RR) will come to an end soon. There can be interests from multiple IPL franchises for the prolific cricketer.

According to speculations, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has a strong interest in Samson; they can count him as a potential leader and a keeper-batter to replace Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Netizens are well aware of the series of rumors related to Sanju Samson. Recently, a social media post shared a photo where we can see Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad are in Chennai Super Kings jerseys. Can we believe the photo and the social media post that claimed that Samson in Chennai Super Kings is confirmed?

During the Ranji Trophy 2025, Kerala was up against Maharashtra. Samson was playing for Kerala, and Gaikwad was representing Maharashtra. The match ended in a draw. From the match, Sanju shared the photo in his Instagram story. It was the same photo that is used in the social media post we are talking about. But the difference is in the color of the jerseys.

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Latest Instagram story of Sanju Samson.

The wait is over now it is official.

Captain and Vice Captain of CSK. pic.twitter.com/1NMjERh0hJ

— Dhruv Thakur (@Dhruv_Thakur___) October 18, 2025

Sanju Samson in CSK jersey?

The real photo, which Sanju shared, was taken at the Maharashtra vs. Kerala Ranji Trophy match, where cricketers were in whites. And the photo, shared from the 'X' account, was edited to change the white jersey into CSK colors. So is it true that Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson are in Chennai Super Kings jerseys? As of now, no, they were not together in the cake attire.

 Also, Sanju's IPL future is not confirmed yet. There can be a linkup between the IPL team and the keeper-batter, but currently, nothing is confirmed. To know what is true, it will be best to wait for official confirmations, which can take some time to come. 

Another young prodigy of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is playing brilliantly in the ongoing round of the Ranji Trophy 2025. When a lot of discussions were around CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, 21-year-old Shaik Rasheed smashed a hundred out of flashes of the cameras. 

At the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, it is up against Andhra Pradesh. From Day 1 of the match, Andhra Pradesh batters have been performing brilliantly. During the writing of the article, they are batting for 375 runs in exchange for 5 wickets. Shaik Rasheed is still on the wicket, batting with 130 runs after facing 278 deliveries. So far, the young gun has dislodged 10 boundaries and no over boundaries. Watching a young batter batting with a hundred-plus runs without hitting any sixes is something rare nowadays, as many talents are aspiring to play limited-overs formats. 

Before Rasheed, the Andhra Pradesh cricket team got another centurion in the form of KS Bharat. The keeper-batter registered a confident 142 off 244, powered by 13 boundaries. He came to open the innings and provided his team the best possible start they could achieve. For the opening pair, he added 93 runs with Abhishek Reddy and then stitched a 194-run partnership with Shaik Rasheed.

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Who is Shaik Rasheed?

Shaik Rasheed is a young batter from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, who made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut in 2025 for the Chennai Super Kings. The right-handed batter played a few matches for CSK as well. In 5 IPL 2025 matches, the batter scored 71 runs at an average of 14.20, which was too far to justify his talent. 

Ahead of IPL 2025, Rasheed bagged a domestic cricket century versus Puducherry. So far, his First Class batting stats are decent. Notably, he was the vice-captain of the India under-19s team that won the Under-19 Men's Cricket World Cup in 2022. 

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has already started their preparations for the upcoming Indian Premier League season (IPL 2026). They are definitely going to make a few signings from the mini auction table. But what about the captaincy? Who will lead the team during IPL 2026? 

As of now, Ruturaj Gaikwad is the captain of the multi-time IPL-winning franchise. But is he capable enough to lead CSK from the front? Last season he played only 5 matches before being knocked out of the tournament due to injury. In those five matches, the batter scored 122 runs in 5 innings at an average of 24.40. He smashed two half centuries as well. His ability to anchor the innings and accelerate when required made him one of the most reliable cricketers of the format. 

According to some of the latest claims, the CSK management can take a look at his captaincy as well. It was claimed that Gaikwad's captaincy may have been under scrutiny. But, at this point, who can be considered as the captain in place of Gaikwad? Last season when Ruturaj was out of the campaign due to injury, MS Dhoni again took over the charge and led the team. Though, that did not help the team to recover from the bad patch. 

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Who will be the captain of CSK for IPL 2026?

Chennai Super Kings finished the season as the worst team of the campaign. They accumulated only 8 points from 4 wins in 14 matches. They were the 10th team in the points table of the 10-team tournament. Despite those devastating stats, CSK made some positive moves as well by signing the young players like Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis. Which reflected their desire to invest in the young prospect.

As of now, it is unlikely to see MS Dhoni back in the captaincy. But there are chances to see changes in the leadership role. Some of the young prospects from the squad can be handed over the vice captaincy role. 

Did Chennai Super Kings (CSK) already finalize the list of players who can be released ahead of the IPL 2026 auction? For the last couple of days the question has been hovering around cricket fans on social media platforms.

A recent media report claims multiple names of cricketers who can be released by the franchise before the auction. The list of probables contains some big names as well. When the speculations about CSK's probable retention list were at their peak, the franchise updated their bio on their official social media account, suggesting the followers not to believe in rumors; the final decision is yet to be made. Now, another report about the topic has arrived.

The latest report also suggested that the multi-time IPL franchise is yet to reach a final decision about the players who they want to release ahead of IPL 2026. To finalize the list, it is reported that Chennai Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, MS Dhoni, and head coach Stephen Fleming can soon have a meeting together to chalk out their future plans. It is also claimed that after their discussions, N Srinivasan will give final approval; before his final approval, nothing is concrete. 

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Speculations around Chennai Super Kings ahead of IPL 2026 mini auction

According to the report published by Cricbuzz, as of now, December 13-15 is considered the probable window for the IPL 2026 auction. Ahead of the auction, which will be a mini auction unlike a mega auction held last season, all of the franchises will have to finalize the names of the players they are willing to retain and release.

In the mini auction, there can be multiple high-profile names in search of a new team. According to the report, the date for the retention deadline can be November 15.

Former India captain MS Dhoni continues to win hearts wherever he goes. The CSK icon recently opened a new international cricket stadium in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. His arrival had the crowds on their feet, with fans traveling in large numbers to catch a glimpse of their beloved “Thala.” Dhoni flew into the venue on a private flight from Mumbai with tight security. The whole stadium was filled with cheers and chants of “Dhoni! Dhoni! ” as soon as he arrived.

During the event, one special moment caught everyone’s attention. A young fan came running toward Dhoni to touch his feet as a sign of respect. The touching moment promptly went viral on social media. Fans all over the nation commended the boy for having classic respect and love towards Dhoni. The former Indian captain laughed, shook hands with the young fan, and kept walking in showing his humility and kindness naturally.

This incident once again showed Dhoni’s special bond with his fans. Even in retirement from international cricket, he maintains an unparalleled amount of popularity and sincerity. Dhoni has been with CSK since its inception and handed over the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad in 2024. Even after undergoing knee surgery, he is still immensely devoted to the team. The simplicity, calmness, and loyalty of the man are why fans love him so much.

A New Cricket Home in Madurai

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), along with the Velammal Education Trust, has built the new Velammal Cricket Stadium in Madurai. The stadium currently has a seating capacity of 7,300, which will later increase to 20,000. It is built on 11.5 acres of land near Velammal Hospital on Chinthamani Ring Road.

Watch the video here

A little boy touched MS Dhoni's feet in the stadium 🥹❤️ pic.twitter.com/eRc94Fl30D

— ` (@WorshipDhoni) October 9, 2025

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The new stadium includes practice pitches, a gym, a players’ lounge, medical facilities, and parking areas. It is also expected to have matches from the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), Ranji Trophy, and potentially IPL matches which allow fans in Madurai to witness watching live cricketing superstars.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has already started their preparations for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026). Last season, they registered their poorest numbers in the points tally. They managed to win only 4 wins in their 14 matches and finished last on the table.

The multi-time IPL champion franchise is desperate to change things ahead of the new season. Hints about their future plans were reflected during last season's midway, when they signed young stars like Dewald Brevis and Ayush Mhatre. Within a short amount of time, those two young stars left their marks with positive impacts.

Along with recruiting fresh talents, CSK management has to think about the replacement for their legendary cricketer MS Dhoni. Who will be the man who can replace Dhoni? According to the latest media report, Chennai Super Kings can show interest in KL Rahul. The media report further claims that Rahul can try his luck in the mini auction.

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CSK to cash in for KL Rahul?

Last year, CSK was engaged in an intense bidding war with Delhi Capitals to rope in the keeper-batter; ultimately, it was Delhi Capitals who pulled up the paddle of the highest bid, which was Rs 14 crore, while the Yellow Brigade was second in the bidding process with Rs 13.75 crore. There were multiple claims on social media that CSK might be departing to cash in for Sanju Samson. But as of now, the deal is looking unlikely to happen. 

IPL 2025 was impressive for KL Rahul from an individual standpoint. He was the top run scorer for the Delhi-based franchise. The top-order batter accumulated 539 runs in 13 innings at an average of 53.9 and a strike rate of 149.72.

Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa revealed some shocking facts from his days with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The former cricketer said that out of stress, he developed a smoking habit when he was associated with CSK during the IPL 2021 season. 

In a recent podcast, Uthappa said that he was in pain from the inside, as he had to sit on the bench for most of the match. In IPL 2021, CSK was the winner of the tournament, but Uthappa got very few chances to do little as a first XI cricketer. As a professional cricketer, he was prepared for every situation from the outside, but from the inside, he was struggling with himself. To ease excessive pressure, he started to smoke. 

"In 2021, when I was playing for CSK, I was part of the team, and I was not getting to play. Obviously internally it was very stressful and internally emotionally very challenging for me. And when you play for the team, it means you want to make sure that your energy, your value addition, and what you want to do for the team do not interfere. So I was able to manage that, but at the back end I was in quite a lot of pain. So as a coping mechanism I started smoking in the 2021 IPL," the former keeper-batter said during a podcast. 

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He wanted to quit the habit and did that. One day, Uthappa was having a conversation with his child. Neale, his son, read the warning and read the warning on a cigarette packet. That was the moment when Uthappa decided to quit the habit of smoking.

A conversation with son changed Robin Uthappa's mind

"In 2023 I had a conversation with my son when it started off as a one-off thing, and it went up to around four to five cigarettes. So in 2023, at the end of 23, maybe 26 December, I was also thinking, in fact, on 20 December I had also told Sheetal that, yaar, I am doing this, but I don’t even like that I am doing it, but it has become a habit. So I told her, "Yaar, maybe I will quit right now, within a week." I have the ability to start and go off something cold turkey completely. But I have the ability to do that. Where it came from I don’t know, but I have that ability in me," he added. 

Robin played IPL 2021 and IPL 2022 with Chennai Super Kings. In 2021, when CSK won the league, Uthappa participated in only 4 matches and scored 115 runs, including a half century. In the following season, he played 12 matches and scored 230 runs.