The rumour mill has been swirling with talk of franchises exploring potential trades ahead of the IPL 2027 mini-auction in December. While most of these rumours remain mere whispers, one has materialised: a four-player swap between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings.
Nathan Ellis and Khaleel Ahmed have bid farewell to the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. Taking their places in yellow are Australian Jack Edwards and English all-rounder and IPL veteran Liam Livingstone.
CSK has turned to Livingstone at the lowest ebb of his seven-season association with the IPL. Across the last three seasons, spent with three different franchises (Punjab Kings in 2024, Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2025 and SRH in 2026), the 33-year-old has managed just 238 runs at a paltry average of 18.30 in 17 innings.
Ahead of the 2026 season, he commanded a lofty price tag of Rs. 13 crore but managed only 15 runs for SRH across two appearances. This is a far cry from his IPL peak, when he scored 716 runs at a strike-rate of 174.20 across IPL 2022 and 2023 for Punjab Kings.
Livingstone also finds himself out of contention for national selection. His last international appearance came in England’s final match of the 2025 Champions Trophy, while his last T20I appearance came during England’s tour of India just before that tournament.
Over the last 12 months, his form on the franchise circuit has been patchy as well. While he enjoyed success in the Vitality Blast with Lancashire and during a brief foray into the SA20 with Durban’s Super Giants, his returns with Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20 and London Spirit in The Hundred were far more inconsistent
.A top-order batter
At his best, Livingstone remains capable of being incredibly destructive and deciding games with his bat alone. He was also among the first modern batters to embrace the shift towards attacking intent in the shortest format.
Perhaps because of that, and the way he has been used by his national side, there is sometimes a tendency to profile Livingstone as a middle-order batter whom a team can slot in at five, six or seven. If one were to extrapolate that usage to CSK, his signing makes sense, given that the franchise often struggled for firepower in the middle and death overs in IPL 2026.
However, Livingstone’s strongest body of work has come as a top-order batter. He has shown the greatest propensity to combine volume and scoring speed when batting at numbers three and four.
Since 2022, Livingstone has had a superb record at the death in the IPL, registering the second-highest strike-rate (222.87) among batters to face at least 50 balls, behind Quinton de Kock. However, when the numbers are broken down by batting position, his best performances in the phase have come at number four. This is evidence of a batter who is more destructive when given time to settle in.
This presents an interesting wrinkle for CSK. In 2025, the number three and four positions were most commonly occupied by Ayush Mhatre and Kartik Sharma, respectively. After Mhatre’s season was cut short by a hamstring injury, Urvil Patel took his place.
All three batters are young and exciting prospects who can expect to jostle for greater responsibility in the batting order this season. In such a scenario, Livingstone could be forced to slide down the order.
One caveat, however, is that Dewald Brevis has been linked with a potential move away from the franchise. If the South African batter were to depart, it could open up a slot in the batting order at Livingstone’s favoured position.
The spin factor
Whichever batting position Livingstone ends up filling, one of his primary roles will be to help CSK address its struggles against spin. The five-time champion was the third-slowest scorer against spinners in 2026, ahead of only Lucknow Super Giant and Delhi Capitals.
Among the players who batted in the middle order, only Shivam Dube was able to consistently score at a brisk tempo against spin, striking at 175.75. Brevis, Jamie Overton and Sarfaraz Khan, meanwhile, all struck at below 140.
However, Livingstone’s record since the start of 2022 suggests that he may not be the ideal profile to address this weakness.
While his strike-rate against pace, particularly right-arm pace, is excellent, his corresponding numbers against right-arm off-spin, left-arm spin and left-arm wrist-spin make a less compelling case for him as a middle-overs spin hitter.
A short-term gamble
The other dimension Livingstone brings to CSK is his bowling. He has often operated as a match-up bowler, delivering leg-spin to right-handers and off-spin to left-handers, giving his side the option of turning the ball away from both batters in a left-right combination.
However, in a post-Impact Player IPL characterised by flatter pitches and less emphasis on match-ups, the value of his bowling has diminished. This is reflected in his usage across the four IPL seasons following the introduction of the rule, during which he has delivered a combined 168 balls, compared to 138 in the single season before it.
In short, Livingstone represents a high-ceiling gamble for Chennai Super Kings. He is a multi-skill cricketer capable of reaching dizzying heights when he finds form.
He is also a known quantity in IPL circles. With a reduced price (Rs. 6 crore) and a year to go until the mega-auction, he is a player CSK can look to extract short-term value from, without significantly compromising its future plans.
Published on Nov 12, 2026