Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have been pretty bad in the IPL 2025, as they have become the first team in the tournament to be officially eliminated after suffering a 6-wicket loss against Punjab Kings. Ravichandran Ashwin was picked up by the team in the IPL 2025 auction for Rs 10 crore, in what was an emotional homecoming for him. However, despite his price tag he could not perform to his potential. He took 5 wickets in 7 matches at an economy rate of above 9, and has even been dropped for the past few games.

In an interaction with Star Sports, former India all-rounder and batting coach Sanjay Bangar said that CSK might not retain Ashwin and free up their purse for the IPL 2026 mini auction a little bit. He also pointed out Matheesha Pathirana as another player that they might release.

“Whether they retain Ashwin or not is going to be another big question because that's where the money is locked in. If they want to free up their purse a little bit, in the knowledge that they might not want to use Ashwin as much as they have used in this particular season. So, probably out of those big-ticket players, those are the two players (Ashwin and Pathirana) that they might just think of whether they want to keep them or maybe find a replacement for them,” Bangar said.

Chennai Super Kings were put in to bat first and they put on a decent total of 190 on the board. Sam Curran was the star of the show with the bat, as he slammed 88 runs from 47 balls. Dewald Brevis also played a handy knock of 32. However, the home team had a late collapse, where they lost 5 wickets in the space of 7 balls. Yuzvendra Chahal picked up a hat-trick in the 19th over, and finished with 4 wickets to his name.

Punjab Kings never had any major difficulty in the run chase. Prabhsimran Singh gave them a brisk start as he slammed his second consecutive half-century. Shreyas Iyer was the top scorer with 72, while Shashank Singh scored a quickfire 23, as the away side won by a margin of 4 wickets with 2 balls to spare. CSK has thus been officially eliminated from the tournament.

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