Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming on Thursday said his IPL side traded hard for veteran Piyush Chawla because he shares a "great relationship" with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, besides being a quality leg-spinner.
Chawla turned out to be a surprise hit with the franchises during the IPL auction here and was eventually bought by Chennai Super Kings for a whopping Rs 6.75 crore.
And Fleming said it was a well-thought out decision as CSK heavily rely on spinners in Chepauk's low and slow wicket.
"We traded very hard (for Chawla) and certainly the captain has a great relationship with him. He's proven that he's a quality leg-spinner which we value very highly," the CSK coach said.
"He's a different type of bowler than Karn Sharma. We also had to make some decisions around how all fits in but it was an opportunity that came up and we took it. We have a pretty well-balanced squad. We've always favoured spin, our home ground is very spin dominant, so having a lot of spinners is not a bad thing."
"He has a great attitude towards the game, he really gets into the game. He played well against us in the past. He's playing well for England. So he fits in nicely with Bravo in that sort of seven-eight position."
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