IPL 2018 Retentions: Decoding Chennai Super Kings' retention policy

With a little more than three weeks to go until the IPL 2018 auctions, all eight teams have announced the list of their retained players.

Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have retained a player each in Steve Smith and Axar Patel, respectively.

Chennai Super Kings, meanwhile, will be back to the IPL after serving their two-year suspension. They have also retained three players. Let’s take a look at CSK’s scheme of things during and after the player retention.

Who got retained?

The three players retained by CSK are MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja.

Dhoni’s retention comes as no surprise as CSK had already stated that Dhoni would lead the side in IPL 2018. He has been retained for INR 15 crore.

Dhoni scored 290 runs in last year’s IPL, averaging 26.36. He scored one fifty but it came in a very crucial game, against Mumbai Indians during the playoffs when Rising Pune Supergiant were struggling.

Dhoni has been instrumental in CSK becoming one of the strongest teams in the IPL.

CSK’s second choice player is Suresh Raina. Raina has been retained for INR 11 crore. Raina, who is currently out of the national team, has been a consistent performer for CSK over the years.

In IPL 2017, while captaining Gujarat Lions, Raina was the 5th highest run-scorer of the tournament with 442 runs at an average of 40.18.

CSK’s third choice player is all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who has been retained for INR 7 crore. Jadeja has been CSK’s talisman with both bat and ball in recent seasons and has been one of their star performers ever since debuting for the side in 2012.

IPL 2017 was not very productive for Jadeja though. With the bat, he scored 158 runs from 10 innings while with the ball, he took only five wickets at an economy of 9.18.

In 2017, Jadeja did not feature for India much in the limited-overs formats but was impressive in Tests, picking up 54 wickets.

Who are the players who did not make the cut?

Looking at CSK’s squad in IPL 2015, there are many notable omissions. However, the biggest and highest-profile omission is Ravichandran Ashwin. Ashwin is one of the finest spinners in the world right now and even though he missed last year’s IPL, his performances for CSK speak volumes of his quality. Hence, his omission comes as a surprise.

However, Ashwin’s performances with India in the limited-overs format have been a stark contrast to his Test performances. He played just one T20I in 2017 and went for 39 runs from his four overs. However, Ashwin’s performances on Indian soil have been pretty good in the past couple of years regardless of the format.

What’s next for CSK?

By looking at the new player retention rules, each team can retain a maximum of only five players or use a Right to Match (RTM) card if they retain fewer than five players. So, does this mean that none of these players can feature for CSK?

No! CSK can still get two other players by using their RTM card. If any other team bids for one of CSK’s released players during the auction, then CSK can use their RTM card to match that bid.

They can use their RTM card on the likes of Dwayne Bravo and Brendon McCullum. Unfortunately, they cannot use an RTM card for Ashwin since they have already reached the limit by retaining three Indian players. The Chennai outfit currently have a purse of INR 47 crore.

Needless to say, the upcoming IPL auction is bound to be very exciting and CSK will be looking to get back some of their former players by winning the bids or using their RTM card.