IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will be returning to the league in 2018 edition, after serving a 2-year ban and will be looking to get back their core players in the upcoming IPL auction.

As per sources, it is reported that CSK will be retaining skipper MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja for the upcoming 11th edition of IPL in 2018.

The cut-off date for forwarding the list of players to be retained is January 4, 2018. The mega auction for the IPL 2018 will be held on 27 and 28th January, 2018.

It is not confirmed whether R Ashwin will be retained or not. However, they still have 'Right To Match' card to get him back into the yellow jersey during the auction. Ashwin missed the IPL 2017 due to a shoulder injury.

"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 about CSK's team strategy said.
 
CSK also has West Indies' Dwayne Bravo, South African Faf du Plessis and Kiwi Brendon McCullum in their radar with the RTM card.

The IPL Governing Council had announced that a franchise could retain up to five players by virtue of a combination of player retention (pre-player auction) and right to match (RTM) during the player auction.