Chennai Super Kings to retain MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja
Ahead of the deadline for submitting the retention list ahead of the 2018 IPL auction, it is almost certain that Chennai Super Kings will retain MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja.
Sources close to the CSK team management said that the team will retain both Dhoni and Raina at any cost and the third name is likely to be Jadeja. He also conceded that the franchise is yet to take a call on using the RTM card for homeboy R Ashwin.
"We have not yet submitted our retention list but it goes without saying that Dhoni and Raina are all but retained. The third retention in all likelihood will be Ravindra Jadeja," an IPL official, who is aware of CSK's team strategy told NDTV.
The official also informed that CSK management is still undecided on whether to go for their former player Ravichandran Ashwin, who is no longer in the Indian team management's radar as far as limited overs cricket is concerned.
The offie has not played a T20 match for India or Tamil Nadu or in the IPL for over a year now and it remains to be seen if the franchise is ready to invest on a player, who is no longer a force to reckon with in the shortest format of the game. The only thing that might allow CSK to bid and go for the Right To Match (RTM) is his local connect being the most successful international cricketer to come out of Tamil Nadu.
Chennai will have some options up their sleeves when it comes to RTM which includes the likes of West Indies' Dwayne Bravo, South Africa's Faf du Plessis and former Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum.
It has been decided that a franchise can retain a maximum of five players using one of the two combinations - three pre-auction retentions and two RTMs or two pre-auction retentions and three RTMs.
While the teams that took part in the 2017 edition can retain players from the squad that was submitted ahead of the 2017 season, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, who are coming back from a two-year suspension, won't have the luxury of retaining players from last year. Instead, both the teams can retain players from their 2015 squad who played for Rising Pune Supergiant or Gujarat Lions last season.