chennai: when chennai super kings At the IPL mini-auction in December last year, Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma raised eyebrows by spending £142 million each on new faces. The two even became the most expensive Indian uncapped players signed in the IPL auction.For a team known for its “Dad’s Army” tag and consistency, there’s been a noticeable shift of late. Injuries are part of the equation, but the losses in the squad cannot be ignored either, with youngsters such as Ayush Mhatt, Uvir Patel, Prashant and Karthik all coming into play. The team has been trading in its signature solid core for a long-term investment, betting that injecting that youth now will pay dividends for years to come.CSK batting coach Michael Hussey Acknowledge that the team is in a transition phase. “It’s a fairly new team in a lot of ways. You know, there’s a lot of new players coming in, some good young talent, and we’d like to showcase them in some games as well. Ideally, we’d like to pick an 11 or 12 that we’re really happy with and then let those guys really grow into their roles. So hopefully we can put some form together and get some wins together and then hopefully we’ll have the confidence to stick with the same type of group moving forward.”Their insistence on 20-year-old Karthik is evident. The wicketkeeper-batsman struggled in the first five games. However, Hussey remains confident that he is just one game away from finding his stride. “He’s a great talent; I hope we see him at CSK in the next five, 10 years. He’s ambitious and wants to do better. We’d love to give him as many opportunities as possible and watch him really grow into the CSK jersey,” he said.
