Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra shared his views on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) choices for retaining players before the IPL 2025 auction. He spoke about the debate around Ravindra Jadeja’s mammoth price of INR 18 crore.
CSK have won the IPL five times kept five players- Ruturaj Gaikwad (INR 18 crore), Ravindra Jadeja (INR 18 crore), Matheesha Pathirana (INR 13 crore), Shivam Dube (INR 12 crore), and MS Dhoni (INR 4 crore). This leaves them with INR 55 crore for the auction. Chopra also discussed whether Jadeja’s price was worth it.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said,” There was a thought for sure whether Jadeja is overpriced because his T20 numbers are not incredible. Even if you see for Chennai, he has made important contributions but they haven’t been so huge that you would say it’s 18-crore worth. However, he is a very important player for Chennai.”
“Chennai wants to keep their family together. Sometimes it is more than the money and you won’t get this skill set. Axar Patel is there and he is already retained. After that, you can find Krunal Pandya or Mushir Khan but the same quality isn’t there. So I feel retaining Jadeja was the right decision,” he continued.
In the IPL 2024 season, Jadeja scored 267 runs with a strong strike rate of 142.78 and took 8 wickets with a good economy of 7.85. Gaikwad, who was also retained for INR 18 crore, showed his value by being the second-highest run-scorer with 583 runs at a strike rate of 141.16.
Chopra pointed out that CSK’s retentions cover key parts of their game plan. They have Gaikwad for opening, Dube as a powerful hitter (396 runs at a strike rate of 162.29), and Dhoni as a great finisher (161 runs at a strike rate of 220.54).
“They have secured eight overs of bowling. There are four overs of Matheesha Pathirana – four overs at the death, absolute gold dust, and four overs of Ravindra Jadeja, which will be bowled in the middle overs. They are not bowled with the new or old ball. His quota is finished by the 13th or 14th over,” Chopra concluded.
