Chennai Super Kings have released the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, and Harbhajan Singh.
Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir finds Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) decision to retain most of their senior players correct. CSK had struggled last season and they failed to finish in the top four for the first time in their IPL history.
With no mega-auction this year, CSK decided to release the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh ahead of the auction. They are going to continue with a similar core like last year for one more season.
Speaking on Star Sports' Cricket Connected show, Gambhir said CSK did the right thing by not releasing too many players. "I feel it is the right strategy. Overall revamp does not mean that you change the entire team. And if you see CSK's season, it was not that bad a season.
"Just because there are a lot of expectations from CSK, they had qualified for the playoffs every time, probably because of that we were asking if they need an overall revamp."
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"This is MS Dhoni's specialty. I have always said that MS Dhoni does not think too far ahead. He only thinks about building the team for a particular season and that is the difference between CSK and RCB. People are saying that CSK had a very bad season and need an overall revamp but despite that, they have left only five players. On the other hand, RCB have left ten players even after qualifying for the playoffs," he added.
Apart from one bad season, Super Kings have a good record in the past. They are the second most successful franchise with three IPL trophies. Gambhir pointed out CSK's success mantra from the previous seasons.
"CSK's success story in the IPL is a balanced mind which knows how important it is to give security to the players, not only to those players who are in your playing XI but also all the players who are sitting in the dressing room," he said.
"Piyush Chawla, probably for the price tag and they have a replacement for him in Karn Sharma and Imran Tahir. Kedar Jadhav because of the number at which he bats and the price tag, that could be the reason, if he had a price of 3 or 4 crores, I feel MS Dhoni would have given him another season. They have left him only because of the price tag, which I think is a very very sensible thing CSK has done," Gambhir signed off.
Recently, Super Kings traded Robin Uthappa from Rajasthan Royals for Rs 3 crore. They have a purse of 19.9 crores ahead of the auction.
(Inputs from Star Sports' Cricket Connected show)