A street-smart T20 bowler who can make the ball talk with his classical swing, Deepak Chahar will be donning the Mumbai Indians (MI) jersey in the next Indian Premier League (IPL) season, after the franchise bought him for Rs 9.25 crore at the IPL mega auction in Jeddah on Monday. Deepak will, thus, no longer be part of MS Dhoni‘s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and said that he will miss the icon’s company.
MI outbid Punjab Kings, who withdrew just before the bid crossed the Rs 8 crore mark, and CSK to get the swing bowler in their ranks on the second day of the auction.
Deepak’s base price was Rs 2 crore.
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In an interaction during the auction’s live broadcast with Suresh Raina, his former teammate at CSK, Deepak said that his skills will be useful on the pacer-friendly Mumbai pitches, as compared to Chennai where spinners get more assistance.
“Everytime I talk to (cousin) Rahul (Chahar), I say you are playing for the team (MI) I should be playing and I am playing for the team (CSK) you should be playing, skill-wise. Because in Chennai, there is help for the spinners and in Mumbai for fast bowlers. He couldn’t come to Chennai, but I am going to Mumbai. So I will get that advantage,” said Deepak.
Rahul, meanwhile, has moved to Sunrisers Hyderabad, who bought the leg-spinner for Rs 3.20 crore.
Further during their live interaction, Raina asked Deepak on a lighter note: “Dhoni bhai ko miss toh karoge (will you miss Dhoni)?”
Deepak’s reply was obvious. “Unko kaun nahi miss karega (who won’t miss him),” the right-arm pacer said.
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Deepak made his IPL debut in 2016 for the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants and was bought by CSK before the 2018 edition of the IPL and stayed with them until this auction.
His best performance in an IPL season came in 2019 when he picked up 22 wickets in 17 games.
He has been part of CSK’s three title-winning campaigns — 2018, 2021 and 2023.