'This is MS Dhoni's specialty': Gautam Gambhir explains why CSK had the 'right strategy' in retaining key players
While CSK released the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, they kept CSK's core players Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, and Dwayne Bravo.
Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir believes that Chennai Super Kings had the right strategy in retaining most of their senior players. At the conclusion of the 2020 IPL season in which CSK were the first team to go out of contention for the playoffs, it was expected that Dhoni's franchise would be going for a complete overhaul and several senior players were expected to be released.
But while CSK released the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, they kept CSK's core players Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, and Dwayne Bravo.
Gambhir praised the strategy and said that MS Dhoni always takes things season-by-season and doesn't make plans too far ahead into the future.
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"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," Gambhir said on Star Sports' Cricket Connected chat show.
"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.
"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 further 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.