Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the high-profile Indian players in the IPL auction

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Former India spinner and head coach Anil Kumble has admitted that the Chennai Super Kings will find it tough to regain the services of Ravichandran Ashwin at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction.

Since the Super Kings retained three Indian players – MS Dhoni (INR 15 crore), Suresh Raina (INR 11 crore) and Ravindra Jadeja (INR 7 crore) – they cannot use a Right to Match (RTM) card on Ashwin during the auction, which will take place on January 27 and 28 in Bangalore.

Despite this, Dhoni, who will captain the Super Kings, revealed that the franchise will aggressively pursue Ashwin at the auction. However, Kumble feels that the Super Kings will be lucky if they manage to buy Ashwin.

“He is captaincy material,” Kumble said on Game Plan as quoted by CricTracker. “There are franchises which need a captain. He is an Indian marquee player. Yes, Chennai would want their local hero to be part of Super Kings, but you never know, he might end up playing for them.”

In addition to Ashwin being captaincy material, Kumble feels that the Super Kings won’t pay more than Rs 4 or 5 crore for the 31-year-old. Even if they do fork out a little more for Ashwin, Kumble doesn’t know if it will be enough to stave off competition from the other franchises.

“Chennai would be looking at him [Ashwin] as a spinner to back up Ravindra Jadeja, whom they have already retained,” he said. “They will have to look at Ashwin as the second spinner. If that is the case, I don’t see them going beyond Rs 4 crore or Rs 5 crore. And I don’t think you will get someone like Ashwin for that amount.”