A former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has expressed his desire to see Keshav Maharaj get a gig during the IPL 2025 auction. Last night he praised Maharaj’s craft in the air during the third T20I between South Africa and India at Centurion.

Robin Uthappa, who has played for a few franchises including CSK during his IPL career, has suggested that IPL scouts keep an eye on Maharaj, South Africa’s premium spinner in white-ball formats for years. Uthappa feels that the IPL scouts would fail if Maharaj does not land in any IPL team in the upcoming edition.

“If Keshav Maharaj doesn’t get a gig in IPL, then IPL scouts have failed,” Uthappa stated on air during the third T20I last night.

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Amid the carnage by the Indian batsmen last night, Maharaj bowled a decent spell, taking two wickets and conceding 36 runs in his four overs. He knocked down the greats, including Abhishek Sharma, who scored 50 runs, and Hardik Pandya, who made 18 runs.

Keshav Maharaj came as a reserve player from Rajasthan Royals (RR) last season.

If we talk about his IPL experience, Keshav Maharaj played for Rajasthan Royals (RR) last season where he came as a substitute player. The franchise bought him at a base price of INR 50 Lakhs as a replacement for Prasidh Krishna, who underwent surgery on his left proximal quadriceps tendon and was unavailable to play.

Maharaj soon made his IPL debut and played two matches for the Royals in the 2024 season, picking two wickets at an average of 19.50. His economy rate was a brilliant 6.50 in those two matches as he bowled as many as six overs.

Earlier in the same season, Maharaj was with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as a net bowler before being snapped up by the Royals. Overall, Maharaj has 38 wickets at 24.73 runs each in 38 T20I innings for South Africa.

He is a solid defensive bowler who plays in tight areas and has bowling intelligence, as was seen last night. Teams generally do not prefer to have foreign defensive spinners in their IPL XI, but Maharaj’s recent rise could tempt some teams to chase him during the auction.

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