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Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin feels the in-demand Auqib Nabi might remain as a backup pacer even if he is acquired by any team at the IPL 2026 auction, which is scheduled to be held on December 16 in Abu Dhabi.

Ashwin highlighted that the teams will be after fast bowlers like Auqib. He also forecasted that his former franchise CSK could go all-out for all-round options like Venkatesh Iyer and Liam Livingstone to strengthen their squad.

"In this particular auction, fast bowlers will be in high demand. I'll reiterate Umesh Yadav might also get a few bids. Because there's  a lot of demand with very little supply. And franchises have a lot of money. Someone like Auqib Nabi will have demand but whether he'll get picked and play, I don't know. Even if CSK pick him, they'll have him as a backup bowler. CSK's first priority will be Venkatesh Iyer. They would've thought of Maxwell in the other slot. Now that he's out, it'll be Livingstone," stated Ashwin in a video on his YouTube channel.

The former CSK title-winner also spoke on the reasoning behind CSK's decision to let go of Sri Lanka's Matheesha Pathirana. 

"Releasing Pathirana was a very calculative call by CSK. Most teams felt Andre Russell would be in the auction even before release. With that in mind, CSK wanted to pick Russell or Cameron Green. But they had no chance with 30 crores, and hence, Matheesha Pathirana looked like a very obvious release," he added.

Apart from Pathirana, CSK, who have a purse of INR 43.40 crore, released Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, C Andre Siddarth, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed and Kamlesh Nagarkoti.

Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran were traded to Rajasthan Royals for Sanju Samson. It will be interesting to witness how the Men in Yellow strategise their picks at the auction. CSK ended at the bottom in the points table for the first time in IPL 2025.