Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were recently involved in a four-player trade. The Yellow Army traded Khaleel Ahmed and Nathan Ellis to the Orange Army. SRH traded Liam Livingstone and Jack Edwards to CSK. Khaleel has previously played for SRH. He was part of SRH when he earned his maiden India call-up in 2018. R Ashwin, who played for CSK for eight seasons, has reacted to the trade and said that SRH have won this deal.

"In this trade between SRH and CSK, SRH are the clear winners. But you may rate a player highly, and the other team is not using them, that is one thing. You may want to improve on your XI from last year as well. If you look from CSK's perspective, Livingstone is someone who SRH did not use. And he did well in The Hundred. Maybe they have taken him because they need a middle-order finisher after MS Dhoni," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

"They have looked at him as a finisher with power. Maybe they thought you cannot buy Livingstone in the auction for a lower price. But SRH have won this trade in its entirety," he added.

Livingstone took a big pay cut in the trade and he joined CSK for Rs 6 crore. He had joined SRH for Rs 13 crore in the auction. Edwards will continue to earn Rs 3 crore. Khaleel and Ellis have joined SRH at their existing fee of Rs 4.8 crore and 2 crore, respectively.

CSK's new coaching staff at helm

The trade decision was taken by CSK's new coaching staff, headed by Zaheer Khan. The Indian legend recently replaced Stephen Fleming as CSK's coach. Fleming coached CSK for 16 seasons.

Zaheer will be assisted by Mohit Sharma, Albie Morkel and Gareth Batty. While Mohit and Morkel played for CSK, Batty never played IPL. He and Zaheer shared the dressing room at Worcestershire in county cricket.

Disclaimer: This article summarizes a report by R Ashwin. While Times Now has verified the public data presented, the interpretations of 'intent' remain those of the creator.