Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath slammed Chennai Super Kings for not signing KL Rahul in IPL 2025 mega auction. CSK bid for Rahul till INR 13.50 crore but he was eventually bagged by Delhi Capitals for INR 14 crore.
Rahul has been a consistent performer over the years in the IPL and has once again delivered for Delhi Capitals. The flamboyant batter has scored 533 runs in 13 matches of the ongoing IPL 2026 at an average of 44.42 and a strike rate of 171.93.
Furthermore, Rahul scored 539 runs in 13 matches in the previous season of the IPL. Badrinath questioned CSK for bidding as high as INR 14.20 crores each for uncapped players like Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer in the IPL 2026 mini auction. While Sharma has done a decent job, Veer hasn’t been able to grab his chances in the tournament.
Badrinath said on his YouTube Channel, “You’ve given 14 crores each for Kartik Sharma and Prashant Veer. But what did you do in the Mega auction for KL Rahul? You bid for him until 13.5 crores. DC got him for 14 crores. If you just went for another 50 lakhs, you could have got KL Rahul. So you won’t go for 14 or 15 crores for KL Rahul, but willingly go for a youngster at the same price in the mini auction. Is this part of the ‘Process’?”
He added, “KL Rahul would have been an excellent fit with CSK. You wouldn’t have had to give up close to 20 crores worth with Jadeja and Curran, to get Samson. Instead, you were unwilling to go an extra 50 lakhs and let Rahul go to DC. These mistakes, as part of the process,s are so glaring. What you did then is costing you now.”
Badrinath said CSK luckily missed signing Deepak Chahar, who was eventually bagged by MI in the auction. The former CSK batter highlighted that the franchise released Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda after not getting positive results.
“CSK went hard for Deepak Chahar also, but luckily, he went to MI. He is a good miss for CSK. They also signed Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tripathi, and Deepak Hooda, and immediately released all three after not getting results. It’s all part of the failed process of these three years,” said Badrinath (via the aforementioned source).
CSK will play their last league stage match against GT at Ahmedabad on Thursday.
