The teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 announced the list of their retained players on Thursday. All ten teams shared their retained players to keep them out of the upcoming mega auctions, which are likely to happen at the end of November. A big news story was that MS Dhoni was kept by the Chennai Super Kings for Rs 4 crore as part of the uncapped player category.
Besides Dhoni, CSK kept captain Ruturaj Gaikwad for INR 18 crore, Matheesha Pathirana for INR 13 crore, Shivam Dube for INR 12 crore, and Ravindra Jadeja for INR 18 crore.
Dhoni left his position as captain of CSK in 2024 and gave the captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad. Unfortunately, CSK did not reach the Playoffs and got eliminated after a lost against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
After seeing that Dhoni was kept by the team, former India player Sanjay Manjrekar said that the five-time champions should allow Dhoni to lead the team in the next season because his captaincy could make the tournament more exciting.
“Dhoni should become captain of CSK in IPL 2025. He played under Ruturaj Gaikwad last season. It was not so much fun to watch. Even if Dhoni doesn’t bat, he can make more impact as captain and wicketkeeper alone for CSK”, Manjrekar told Star Sports Hindi.
Besides him, former India star Mohammad Kaif said that keeping Dhoni for such a low price was a clever move by CSK.
While talking to Jio Cinema, Kaif said, “CSK have played really well. They have saved 10-15 crores. I feel that the way this rule was brought back because we were driven by emotions, and we all really wanted MS Dhoni to play another year…I feel CSK played very smartly there. Yes he is taking less money, but it would allow CSK to buy big names players at the auction.”
“I feel whichever player plays for India, I was 36 when I last played an international match for India… now if I get dropped from the team, but continue to have a good IPL run, then I should not have come under the uncapped player rule,” he added.
