C Hari Nishaanth was brought by CSK at the IPL 2021 Player Auction. The Tamil Nadu opener was picked up by the Chennai-based franchise for his base price of INR 20 lakhs after his impressive batting in 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Tamil Nadu. The southpaw scored 246 runs in 8 matches while opening the batting and helped his team clinch the SMAT 2021 title. A match-winning 92* off 64 balls against Jharkhand was his best effort of the tournament.