CSK Trade for Liam Livingstone and Jack Edwards: Khaleel Ahmed and Nathan Ellis Move to SRH

Hello Yellow Army!

Finally, big trade news has come from CSK! After the staff overhaul, and with the IPL retention date getting a 2-day extension, CSK have made their move, and it is a four-player swap with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Liam Livingstone and Jack Edwards are coming in, and Khaleel Ahmed and Nathan Ellis are going out.

This one is official, so no more rumours this time. Let's go through the deal.

CSK Trade Liam Livingstone and Jack Edwards From SRH: The Deal

CSK have spent ₹9 crore on the two players coming in and let go of ₹6.8 crore worth of players going out, which means a ₹2.2 crore bump in the salary bill, and in return we get two overseas all-rounders for the price of two bowlers.

Liam Livingstone: The Big Hitter

Livingstone is the big hitter in the middle and lower order, with 100 international matches for England and over 1500 runs behind him. He first came into the spotlight in 2021 with a T20I hundred off just 42 balls against Pakistan, the fastest century in the format by an England player. By then he already had a reputation for raw power and the ability to take apart good bowling attacks, plus he is a sharp outfielder and a useful spinner who can turn the ball both ways.

The same year he finished as the top run-scorer of the inaugural Hundred with 348 runs in nine games, and his stock rose even higher when Punjab Kings bought him for ₹11.5 crore at the 2022 IPL auction. And he delivered straight away. Here is his IPL journey:

His 2022 season was a stratospheric one, as most of those runs came from No. 4 at a strike rate of 182. But his run-making dropped with fewer starting opportunities in the next two seasons at Punjab. Then came a bad season with RCB in 2025, with just 112 runs, and this year at SRH he got only 2 matches and 15 runs in total. Over his career he has scored 1066 runs at a strike rate of 155 with 76 sixes, so the power is still there, but the form and the opportunities have not been.

The good news is that he has found some touch after the IPL. In this year's Hundred he scored 233 runs in 8 matches at a strike rate of 160 with 13 sixes, and in the inaugural European T20 Premier League he added 219 runs in 10 matches.

Now look at the price. SRH had originally bought him for ₹13 crore, and he comes to CSK at a reduced fee of ₹6 crore, which is a big drop. So CSK are taking a bit of a gamble here, but at this price I think it is a good one.

And I think I know what CSK are thinking. We badly need an experienced player for the finisher role, and Livingstone is a proper power-hitter for the lower order. Most probably this is also CSK's way of replacing Matt Short, who did not deliver this year, with 60 runs at a strike rate of 118 in 3 matches and no wickets in his 3 overs. He had almost the same role with bat and ball, just in the middle order, while Livingstone will be more of a lower-order option, and the spin he can bowl is a bonus.

Jack Edwards: The Young Australian All-Rounder

Jack Edwards is a 26-year-old Australian seam-bowling all-rounder who has scored 865 runs and picked up 58 wickets in T20 cricket. He is a right-hand batter who has also scored close to 2500 runs in first-class cricket, including 4 centuries, so it is not only about white-ball cricket for him.

He has been a Sydney Sixers regular in the BBL since 2018-19, but it is only in the last three seasons that he has really become a bowler to watch, and here is how those years looked for him, along with his stint at Washington Freedom in Major League Cricket:

His best season came in the 2025-26 BBL, with 19 wickets and a strike rate of 168 with the bat, and that is exactly the kind of numbers that got him noticed. SRH signed him for ₹3 crore even before he made his international debut for Australia, and he joins CSK at the same fee.

But he never got to play an IPL game for them, as he was ruled out of IPL 2026 with a foot injury that he picked up while playing for New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield. So this one is more of a bet on the future than a ready-made star, but a wicket-taking seamer who can also bat is a useful player to have. In fact, he looks most probably like a like-for-like replacement for Jamie Overton, another seam-bowling all-rounder, who became a fan favourite with his gutsy and passionate performances for CSK this year, taking 14 wickets and scoring 136 runs at a strike rate of 158 in 10 matches in IPL 2026.

Khaleel Ahmed: Gone After Two Seasons

I have to be honest here, this one stings a bit. He came in for ₹4.8 crore and had a good 2025 with 15 wickets in 14 matches, but in 2026 he played only 5 games before a right quadriceps injury ruled him out of the season. That is 19 games and 17 wickets in total for us, with an economy of 9.14, as you can check in his CSK stats. It is also a homecoming of sorts, as he returns to SRH, where he played from 2018 to 2021, at the same ₹4.8 crore fee.

I even had him in the list of Indian bowlers to build around in our Nathan Ellis article, so I did not see this coming. But if you think about it, there could be an idea behind this trade.

CSK already have a lot of Indian bowlers competing for a place in the playing XI, like Kamboj, Mukesh and Gurjapneet. And look at the growth of Mukesh Choudhary, another left-armer, who came in this year when Khaleel was out injured and delivered quite well, with 8 wickets in 8 matches, compared to Khaleel's 2 wickets in 5 matches before his injury. The economy rates are close, 8.89 for Mukesh and 8.67 for Khaleel.

And he has only been getting better since then, as he took a five-wicket haul in the Irani Cup and was then picked for India A. Kamboj has done the same, with 21 wickets in IPL 2026, an India call-up and Player of the Match in the 1st ODI.

So most probably CSK thought it was better to move one of the bowling options and fill another gap with a foreign all-rounder, rather than keep too many bowlers sitting on the bench.

Nathan Ellis: As I Said, He Had to Go

Remember what I said in our CSK Should Release Nathan Ellis Before IPL 2027 article? One game in two seasons, a hamstring that ruined our 2026 death-bowling plan before a ball was bowled, so we had to bring in Spencer Johnson as the replacement, who played 3 games and took 2 wickets, and then a fresh side strain. The last point of that article was to do it through the trade window, not the bin, and that is exactly what CSK have done.

Credit where it is due, CSK did not just release him, they got a player back in the deal. And just to be clear again, nothing against Ellis as a person or a bowler. He is a fine one, he just was not there when we needed him. He is known for his variations and his effectiveness in the death overs, and now he adds to SRH's pace-bowling resources at the same ₹2 crore fee. All the best to him at Sunrisers.

What It Means for CSK in IPL 2027

Two new overseas players, so it is an interesting moment for the squad:

• The lower order gets a boost: Livingstone brings real six-hitting power as an experienced finisher, and Edwards adds another all-round option.
• The pace attack is still covered: Instead of Nathan Ellis, we now have Spencer Johnson as the overseas pace option, and Kamboj, Mukesh and Gurjapneet are there for the Indian spots, so CSK do not have to panic about bowlers. Johnson may not be of Ellis's quality, but with our domestic bowlers and the strategy of bowling coach Mohit Sharma and head coach Zaheer Khan, this attack can still do better, which is exactly what CSK are known for, getting the best out of their bowlers. They may still look at the mini-auction as well.
• A first big move under the new setup: This is the first big squad decision since the new coaching staff came in under Zaheer Khan, and it points towards more batting depth and all-rounders.

The pre-auction trade window is expected to stay open until around the second week of December, so I would not be surprised if this is not the last move. We already covered the wild ones in our trade rumours article.

I will keep adding every update on the Super Kings Player Tracker, so keep an eye on it.

Stay healthy stay yellow.