Deepak Chahar ‘couldn’t imagine’ playing for any IPL franchise apart from CSK

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After becoming most expensive Indian bowler at an IPL auction, he says: ‘In 2018, I had met Srinivasan sir, and he said, ‘you will play in yellow always”

He told Star Sports on Sunday that in 2018, franchise owner N Srinivasan had told him that he would have a long association with the franchise, and since then, Chahar said, he had never broached the topic of retention or auction plans with the team.

He also said that he “could not imagine” playing for any other franchise. “I’ve never spoken about all this to Mahi bhai [captain MS Dhoni] or CSK management,” Chahar said. “In 2018, I had met Srinivasan sir, and he has said, ‘you will play in yellow always’. So I took his word that day and since then I have never spoken about retention. I knew CSK would bid [for me].

“We [India’s T20I squad] were travelling from Ahmedabad to Kolkata, and the whole team was watching the auction. Everyone was saying kitna ho gaya (what’s the bid price?) and all that.

“I wanted to play for CSK because I haven’t imagined myself playing in other colour than yellow. At one point, I thought it [the bid price] was too much. As a CSK player, I also want to build a good team. So after they spent 13 crore, I actually wanted the bidding to stop so I can go to CSK quickly and then we can buy some other players [with the money saved].

Chahar will represent the Super Kings for a fifth season in a row, having been bought by the franchise before IPL 2018 for INR 80 lakh. Before that, he had worked with some of the Super Kings personnel at the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise, where he played between 2016 and 2017 alongside Dhoni and current Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming as the Super Kings sat out their suspension in the aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal of 2013.

“In Pune, I played first game, he played second, I played third, and he played fourth, but we never played together. I was thinking this auction we might play together, but may be some other time. I’ll ask Rahul to come from Punjab for next year (laughs).”