R Ashwin, India off-spinner and ex-Chennai Super Kings (CSK) cricketer has shared his views on which players the five-time champions should retain ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. He also stated that he would not retain MS Dhoni as an uncapped player if he was a CSK official.

Instead, Ashwin has proposed a different name as uncapped retention for CSK, opting to retain Dhoni as a capped player and one of the five primary retentions. Ashwin gave his perspective while discussing the retentions on his YouTube channel.

“If you say Mumbai Indians can retain six players, why can't CSK? We have Ruturaj (Gaikwad), Jadeja (Ravindra Jadeja), (Matheesha) Pathirana, (Shivam) Dube, MS Dhoni and Sameer Rizvi. Just being a devil's advocate,” Ashwin said cheekily on his YouTube channel.

Former South Africa performance analyst Prasanna Raman, more commonly known by his moniker ‘PDogg', told Ashwin that he disagreed.

“I don't think you should retain Sameer Rizvi for Rs 4 cr. I don't even know whether he would agree to play for Rs 4 cr,” said Raman.

Rizvi was bought ahead of the IPL 2024 for a hefty Rs 8.4 crore, but he failed to impress, hitting only 51 runs in eight games at a low strike rate of 118. Despite this, Ashwin remained optimistic about Rizvi, praising his performance in the UP T20 League and noting that many similar players are available, which would not significantly increase Rizvi's price.

“He has been putting on a show every day. He's playing on a different level, single-handedly in the UP T20. There is a huge upside with him. He will fall into the same bracket as Shahrukh Khan, Abhinav Manohar, and Dhruv Jurel,” Ashwin stated.

The IPL Governing Council's decision to reinstate the provision that Indian players who have not played internationally in five or more years can be retained as 'uncapped' allowed CSK to keep five-time IPL champion Dhoni for merely Rs 4 crore.  

However, Ashwin's approach may help CSK maintain a strong Indian core. Ashwin played for CSK from 2008 to 2015, earning two IPL titles.