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India's legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has predicted the player who will be Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) first priority in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mini-auction. He feels that the five-time IPL-winning franchise will go all out for former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batting all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer. In addition, he feels that CSK will go for overseas all-rounder Liam Livingstone since Glenn Maxwell has opted out of the mini-auction.
"CSK's first priority will be Venkatesh Iyer. They would have thought of Maxwell in the other slot. Now that he's out, it'll be Livingstone," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Iyer was roped in for a whopping Rs 23.75 crore in the mega auction by KKR after they opted not to retain him. However, he had a lacklustre season under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane.
How Venkatesh Iyer and Liam Livingstone have performed of late?
Iyer is among the two Indian players who have registered themselves at a base price of Rs 2 crore for the auction. However, he has not done himself any favour by scoring 72 runs from four innings, including an unbeaten 55 against Bihar in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025.
Meanwhile, Englishman Liam Livingstone smashed an unbeaten 82 for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders against Sharjah Warriorz in the ILT20 2025 clash on December 3. Livingstone was not retained by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He was roped in for Rs 8.75 crore in the IPL 2025 mega auction.
Why CSK released Pathirana?
Ashwin also tried to explain why they opted to released Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana.
"Releasing Pathirana was a very calculative call by CSK. Most teams felt Andre Russell would be in the auction even before release. With that in mind, CSK wanted to pick Russell or Cameron Green. But they had no chance with 30 crores, and hence, Matheesha Pathirana looked like a very obvious release," said the 39-year-old.
CSK will head to the mini-auction. with Rs 43.40 in the purse. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are the only ones with a bigger purse (Rs 64.30 crore). CSK retained a total of 16 players including the trade of Sanju Samson. They have a maximum of four overseas slots to fill.
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