Chennai Super Kings’ handling of Prashant Veer is quickly turning into one of the strangest tactical stories of IPL 2026. Before the season, CSK spent a massive ₹14.2 crore on him, buying not just a left-handed batter but a left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder whose value was supposed to lie in balance, flexibility and long-term utility.
Two matches into his CSK career, that logic already looks badly compromised. Veer has played against the Punjab Kings and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, but CSK have not given him a single over in either game. For a player bought on dual-skill promise, that is not just underuse. It is a case of a franchise paying premium money for a two-discipline cricketer and then deploying only one half of the package.
CSK have picked the all-rounder but treated him like a specialist batter
That is what makes this tactic so hard to justify. Veer’s official skill set is clear. He is not in the squad as a pure batter sneaking through on part-time bowling. He is in the IPL ecosystem as a proper slow left-arm orthodox option who also bats left-handed. That combination is exactly the sort of profile teams chase hard for in auctions because it gives captains room to reshape the innings on both fronts.
Yet CSK’s actions suggest they do not trust him enough to use that second skill at all. Against the Punjab Kings, he made his debut and did not bowl, even though CSK were defending a total. Against RCB, he retained his place despite not bowling in the previous match, and then again remained unused with the ball while CSK were hammered for 250 for 3.
That is where the decision stops looking patient and starts looking contradictory. If he is good enough to be in the XI, why is he not good enough to bowl even one over? And if he is not trusted to bowl, why was so much money committed to a profile built around all-round value?
The money-burn angle is real, too
The easiest way to understand the scale of the waste is to break down the auction fee across the league stage. At ₹14.2 crore over 14 league matches, Veer costs roughly ₹1.014 crore per match. If you split his value evenly between batting and bowling, the bowling side alone comes to about ₹50.7 lakh per game.
That means over the two matches he has played, CSK have effectively parked around ₹1.014 crore worth of projected bowling value on the bench while still carrying him in the XI.
And that is actually a conservative estimate. In T20 cricket, the bowling side of an all-rounder often holds disproportionate strategic value because it creates flexibility elsewhere. A captain with an extra spin option can alter match-ups, protect a struggling frontline bowler, stretch resources at the death, or attack a specific phase more boldly. When that option is never used, the side is not merely wasting money; it is also wasting time. It is wasting a structural advantage it has already paid for.
The bigger concern is tactical confusion
This is what should worry CSK more than the optics of the price tag. Their use of Prashant Veer suggests role confusion. Either they bought him as an all-rounder but no longer trust his bowling, or they always intended to use him mainly as batting depth and still paid an all-rounder’s premium for him. Neither explanation makes the franchise look especially sharp.
It also creates an avoidable selection problem. If a team is unwilling to bowl a spin-bowling all-rounder, then that player is no longer solving balance issues. He is instead taking up a spot while the captain searches for overs elsewhere. That weakens the squad architecture rather than strengthening it.
For CSK, that is the bizarre part. They have not merely underused an expensive player. They have turned a ₹14.2 crore all-round investment into a one-dimensional selection. Right now, it looks less like smart long-term backing and more like money going down the drain one unused over at a time.
