England all-rounder Sam Curran might be enjoying one of the best phases of his career, having earned a recall to the national side on the back of scintillating performances in the Hundred for the Oval Invincibles and has ILT20 and BBL contracts in his hand for the winter. However, with the IPL franchises set to zero in on their player retentions for the next season, before the auction, Curran might not be a sure-shot retention for the Chennai Super Kings, despite having a low auction price of Rs 2.4 crore.
"Don't worry, we've updated the bio," CSK wrote in one of their posts when the information regarding Curran's release was mentioned in the Cricbuzz report, confirming possible dates for the IPL 2026 auction. The report went viral and hence, the rumours were rife regarding the same. The bio update, which the post referred to, said, "Nothing's official till you see it here", hinting that Curran still might get retained ahead of next year's IPL.
Curran made his career-best IPL score of 88 off just 47 balls against the eventual finalists Punjab Kings, in one of the league-stage matches, and since the IPL, he has been in terrific form, having reinvented himself with both bat and ball and having not made CSK spend moolah on him, the 27-year-old still might be retained by the five-time champions.
Curran, however, might not be the biggest headache for CSK ahead of the next retention process, but since the franchise finished last on the points table, there may be an inclination to start afresh. R Ashwin has already retired, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi and Vijay Shankar, among others, are likely to be released, and there is again the MS Dhoni question for the franchise to answer.
The auction is likely to be held on one of the dates from December 13-15, with the retention deadline being November 15. With the likes of Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre and Urvil Patel in the side, CSK already found some players for the future as replacements in the side. It will be interesting to see how they build on from this.