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.
IPL 2026 mini auction: 5 players that CSK should release
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:
1. Ravichandran Ashwin:
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.
2. Dewon Conway:
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.
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3. Rahul Tripathi:
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.
4. Deepak Hooda:
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.
5. Vijay Shankar:
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.
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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.