Chennai Super Kings buys Liam Livingstone for ₹6 crore for IPL 2027

According to a Sportstar report, ahead of the mini-auction of IPL 2027 to be held in December, speculations were rife among franchises regarding potential trades, out of which a four-player trade deal has taken shape between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings.

Under this four-player swap, Nathan Ellis and Khaleel Ahmed have bid adieu to the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, while in their place Australia's Jack Edwards and England all-rounder and IPL veteran Liam Livingstone have joined Chennai Super Kings in the yellow jersey. Liam Livingstone has been traded to CSK for ₹6 crore.

In his seven-season journey with the IPL, Liam Livingstone is currently passing through his weakest phase. In the last three seasons spent with three different franchises namely Punjab Kings (2024), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (2025) and SRH (2026), this 33-year-old player has scored only 238 runs in 17 innings and his average has been 18.30. Prior to the 2026 season his price was ₹13 crore, but he scored only 15 runs in just two matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad. This performance is far behind his best time in the IPL, when he scored 716 runs at a strike rate of 174.20 for Punjab Kings during IPL 2022 and 2023.

Liam Livingstone is currently also out of the race for national team selection. His last international match was England's final match of the 2025 Champions Trophy, while his last T20 international match was played during England's tour of India before that tournament. His form in franchise cricket has also been erratic over the last 12 months. Although he tasted success with Lancashire in the Vitality Blast and Durban's Super Giants in the SA20, his performance was more volatile in the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ILT20) and London Spirit (The Hundred).

At his best, Liam Livingstone is capable of being extremely destructive and single-handedly winning matches. He was one of the first modern batters to adopt an aggressive approach in the short format. Perhaps for this reason, and the way he is used by his national team, Livingstone is seen as a middle-order batter who can be played at number five, six or seven. If this role is combined with CSK, this signing makes sense as the franchise struggled for powerful performances in the middle and death overs in IPL 2026.

However, Liam Livingstone's finest performances have been as a top-order batter. He has shown excellent capability in both volume of runs and scoring speed while batting at numbers three and four. Since 2022, Liam Livingstone has built a stellar record in the death overs in the IPL, where his strike rate of 222.87 is the second highest after Quinton de Kock among batters who have faced at least fifty balls. However, looking at the statistics according to the batting order, his best performance in this phase has come at number four, which shows that he becomes more destructive when given time to settle.

This creates an interesting situation for CSK. In 2025, the number three and four positions were generally handled by Ayush Mhatre and Kartik Sharma respectively. After Ayush Mhatre's season ended prematurely due to a hamstring injury, Urvil Patel took his place. All three of these batters are young and enthusiastic players who will stake a claim for a big responsibility in the batting order this season. In such a situation, Liam Livingstone might have to be pushed down the order. However, one exception is linked to the possibility of Dewald Brevis leaving the franchise. If this South African batter departs, it could clear a space in the batting order at Liam Livingstone's preferred spot.

No matter what batting order Liam Livingstone plays in, one of his main roles will be to help CSK with their struggle against spin.