Aakash Chopra is a former India player, who has named the probable releases of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) before the auction of IPL 2026. According to him, Devon Conway will leave because the New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter did not have enough chance during the IPL 2025 despite being purchased at a high price.
Everyone in the franchise will be expected to exchange their retention list on Saturday November 15. The auction of IPL 2026 will be held one month later.
In a video on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ the former India opener told that CSK will release Conway, on top of the already retired Ravichandran Ashwin.
“They will have a long list of retentions. The release list is slightly shorter. So let’s focus on that. One guy has already gone. He was a very expensive player, goes by the name of Ravichandran Ashwin. He releases ₹9.75 crore, and that, in my opinion, is a significant sum. Another player who is slightly expensive, and I feel the team will release him, and that’s Devon Conway,” Chopra said (2:45).
“They stayed with Devon Conway for a long time. Devon Conway did well for this team as well, but he had some injury issues last year or the year before that, and the opportunities he was given weren’t enough. So I think they will release him, and it’s a lot of money – ₹6.25 crore. That makes it ₹16 crore already. You are already sitting in a good place.”
Aakash Chopra
Devon Conway scored 156 runs at a strike rate of 131.09 in six innings of IPL 2025. Due to an injury, he missed the IPL 2024 season, and the franchise replaced him with Richard Gleeson.
Aakash Chopra predicts CSK will release Rahul Tripathi before IPL 2026 auction
In the same video, Chopra stated that CSK should also release Rahul Tripathi.
“They will have to release Rahul Tripathi. He comes for ₹3.40 crore. You should release him because as soon as you do that, another three-and-a-half crores, which means you have already reached nearly ₹20 crore, and you have released just three players. That just releases a lot of money for you to play around.”
Aakash Chopra
The cricketer-turned-commentator believes the five-time champions will also lose Deepak Hooda and Vijay Shankar.
“After that, you will release Deepak Hooda. He is worth ₹1.70 crore. You will release Vijay Shankar. He is worth ₹1.20 crore. So nearly ₹3 crore will be released here as well. Now you are looking at ₹23 crore.”
Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra also points out that CSK can retain Rachlin Ravindra and save approximately 23 crore by offloading Ravichandran Ashwin, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda and Vijay Shankar. He has forecasted that the franchise in Chennai would retain Dewald Brevis, Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, the three players who joined in as a replacement to IPL 2025.
