IPL 2026 auction: 5 players CSK should release ahead of the next Indian Premier League mini auction – sportingnews.com

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Mayank Bande
The Indian Premier League 2025 season ended on a catastrophic note for the five-time winners, Chennai Super Kings, as they finished at the bottom of the table, accumulating only 8 points in 14 games.
Some injury replacements like Ayush Mhatre and Dewald Brevis were among the positives from the season, but that was too late to salvage anything for them.
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A few of their big-money signings did not work out too well for them, so they will look to rectify this in the next mini auction.
In this article, TSN takes a look at the players that CSK should offload and do some repair work.
Apart from their top retentions ahead of the auction, Noor Ahmad was their most expensive player buy from the auction room, followed by Ravichandran Ashwin, who was bought for a whopping sum of INR 9.75 crores.
The other names who should be on their way out include players like Rahul Tripathi and Deepak Hooda. See the list below:
R Ashwin is the local Chennai man who has done well for them in the past. However, with only 7 wickets in the 2025 season, it’s time for the veteran spinner to bid adieu to the franchise.
With a youngster like Ayush Mhatre set to take over the opening role in future and the presence of captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra in the squad, CSK should consider releasing the 6.25 crore buy, Conway, into the auction as a surplus to their requirements.
READ MORE: Kohli addresses fans in Bengaluru after IPL win
A few years back, the Maharashtra batter was one of the explosive and exciting top-order batters in the IPL, but everything went south in 2025 as the player only managed to score 55 runs in 5 matches at a strike rate of 96.49 to his name. He will also free up 3.40 crore for a rebuild.
After a 125-match IPL career, the Hood only averages 17.60 and has a strike rate of 127.64, which includes the 2025 season, where he got only 31 runs in 5 innings at an underwhelming strike rate of 75.60. He can also add 1.70 crore to CSK’s purse.
Despite his all-around abilities, Shankar has not contributed much to CSK this season. He got a gritty 69* in just one match in the 2025 season, but overall managed 118 runs in the season in the 5 innings he batted in.
READ MORE: Will there be an IPL auction in 2026?
In a season where almost nobody performed, these numbers would look better than the others’, but CSK would like to look at much younger options to build a core for the future. He will free up another 1.20 crore.
After a few cheap injury replacements already working out well for CSK, the freed-up 22.30 crores from the above releases would help them to buy a few players who could fill the gap in the quality from the 2025 squad.
Mayank Bande is a content producer for The Sporting News’ India edition. 

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