Chennai Super Kings sign five uncapped bowlers

In a continuation of their auction strategy, Chennai Super Kings have beefed up their bowling department further by signing five Indian uncapped bowlers. The players are UP fast bowlers Imtiaz Ahmed and Ankit Rajpoot, Haryana quick Mohit Sharma, Karnataka pacer Ronit More and Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner R Karthikeyan.

Imtiaz is the most experienced of the lot with 15 first-class matches to his name. In the Ranji Trophy this season, Imtiaz was the leading wicket-taker from Uttar Pradesh taking 37 from nine matches at an average of 25.45, including three five-wicket hauls. He was with the Pune Warriors in IPL 2011 but did not get a game.

His UP team-mate Rajpoot made his first-class debut this season against Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy and collected 31 wickets from seven matches at an average of 18.80. He has not played limited-overs domestic matches so far.

Mohit played eight Ranji matches this season, taking 37 wickets, averaging 23.24 runs per wicket. Mohit has also played six List A matches, the last one being a warm-up match against England XI in January before the five-match ODI series. He took two wickets in the match, of Ian Bell and Craig Kieswetter, in eight overs.

More made his first-class debut this season playing two matches, and also has seven List A and one domestic Twenty20 to his name. The lone spinner among the new signings, Karthikeyan, plays for TI Cycles in the first division league of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

Stephen Fleming, Super Kings' coach, had said two days before the auction that the team would focus on local seam bowling options. At the auction on Sunday, Super Kings bought three quicks - Dirk Nannes, Ben Laughlin and Jason Holder, allrounder Chris Morris and spinner Akila Dananjaya.