MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings splurged out INR 7 crores for England star all-rounder Moeen Ali at the 2021 IPL player auction
England all-rounder Moeen Ali has had a pretty interesting week, both on the field as well as off it. Moeen, who smashed an 18-ball 43 against India in the second innings of the second Test at Chennai, returned home after the game as part of England's rotation policy. While it was understood from before that Moeen would return after the second Test, skipper Joe Root apologised in the dressing room after saying that Moeen chose to head back home, after seeing how his comments were received.
Two days later Moeen Ali's name witnessed Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings involved in a bidding war to get the spin all-rounder to feature for their side in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). After a battle of around five minutes, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side grabbed the 33-year old at a price of INR 7 crores.
CSK who were targeting an off-spinning all-rounder from the start had their eyes first in Glenn Maxwell but lost out to RCB after the bid went out of what their salary allowed but didn't lose out on Moeen.
After getting picked by the Chennai side, Moeen was visibly delighted with the fact that he will be playing under one of India's best-ever cricket captains in MS Dhoni.
"Absolutely buzzing to be playing for CSK this year, massive fan base, can't wait to meet them. Also, obviously to play under MS (Dhoni) will be amazing, it's something that most cricketers want to do.
Moeen also mentioned that he was looking forward to playing with his England teammate Sam Curran, who became part of the franchise last year.
"So yeah, absolutely buzzing. It has made my day, it's made my year," he added.
Speaking on the purchase, Chennai Super Kings CEO, Kasi Vishwanathan said, "We're happy that we got Moeen Ali at a reasonably good price. We've seen him play crucial innings in T20s. He's also a powerful hitter. So we knew, he had the credentials to do well as an off-spinning all-rounder."
Along with Moeen, CSK also roped in Karnataka off-spinning all-rounder at a whopping price of INR 9.25 crores, 46 times his base price of 20 Lakh.
CSK purchased 6 players in the auction to complete their squad of 25 players.
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