Day 1 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction saw Chennai Super Kings (CSK) retain most of their core squad, however, they lost South African batter Faf du Plessis at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Faf du Plessis has played 100 matches in his IPL career and scored 2,935 runs. In the previous edition, while playing for CSK, he scored 633 runs at a strike rate of 138.20, with six half-centuries.
Talking about his stint with the Chennai-based franchise, Du Plessis first featured for them in 2011 and went on to play for the same franchise till 2015 until the side was suspended for two years. He, however, played alongside Dhoni in 2016 and 2017 as well in the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants.
He, however, reunited with the CSK in 2018 and played for them till 2021. He was in the mega auction was brought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 7 crore after he was listed at a base price of INR 2 crores.
Now, that he had to bid goodbye to the franchise, CSK shared a video of the batter in which he can be seen getting emotional. "I just want to thank Chennai, the fans, the staff and management and players for what has been a decade as one team. We created a lot of special memories and it’s important for me to say thank you", said Du Plessis.
"I've enjoyed my time a lot, I miss everyone there. But if one door closes and a new one opens up and that comes up with great opportunities and I’m excited to see what the future holds," he added.
WATCH:
The mega auction for the upcoming IPL 2022 got underway in Bengaluru on February 12. Before that, a mega auction had taken place in 2018 when 169 players were brought by the then existing eight franchises.
This year, two more franchises have been inducted - the Lucknow Super Giants and the Gujarat Titans. Thrilling bidding has taken place in the span of two days. Indian wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan ended up being the most expensive buy going for a whopping INR 15.25 crore to Mumbai Indians (MI).
Hard-hitting England all-rounder Liam Livingstone became the most expensive foreign pick and was sold for INR 11.50 Crores to the Punjab Kings (PBKS).
