A little over four months still remain for the next season of the Indian Premier League but the buzz is slowly building up. November 15 is the last day for all the franchises to submit their list of retentions and released players. Therefore, teams looking for trades also need to sort things out within this time limit.
The biggest rumour of the IPL off-season has been regarding the potential trade of Washington Sundar to Chennai Super Kings. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder, currently with Gujarat Titans, was allegedly set to move to the five-time champions as a possible replacement for the retired Ravichandran Ashwin.
While not exactly a like-for-like replacement because of Sundar's better batting ability, the bowling skill sets are similar and it is no wonder that CSK were looking to get Sundar aboard. Apart from the similarity in player profiles, it would also help the franchise's brand value to get a local player into the squad with international experience. However, is the move still on?
As per reports from Cricbuzz, the move to get Sundar from GT to CSK officially ended a couple of weeks back. It must be noted that the left-hander stroked a brilliant 49* in the third T20I against Australia in Hobart and speculations are that this knock further firmed up Titans's decision regarding Sundar. That, though, is factually incorrect.
GT head coach Ashish Nehra, once a CSK player himself, had already communicated his franchise's stance to the CSK management regarding Sundar. The 26-year-old has seen a massive spike in his career since moving to the Ahmedabad franchise and is now an all-format player for the India men's team.
Sundar signed for the Titans at the 2025 IPL mega-auction for a price of Rs 3.20 crore and has constantly been linked with a move to the franchise of his native state. Meanwhile, CSK are equally unwilling to let go of Ravindra Jadeja who was asked as a swap option by the Rajasthan Royals for Sanju Samson.
Like Samson, Jadeja too has a history with the Royals as it was there that his all-round credentials first came to the fore. The late Shane Warne had rated Jadeja highly right from his IPL debut and once the spinning all-rounder moved to CSK, the stocks went to another level. As thing stand, neither of these two big trades are on.
