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With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction set to take place in just a few days’ time on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) CEO, Kasi Viswanathan finally broke silence on the team eyeing to sign star Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant. It is to be noted that rumours around the franchise going all out to sign the 26-year-old began after he shared a post at midnight, raising speculations on his release from Delhi Capitals .
Moreover, with his official release on October 31, talks around the CSK signing him further spread like wildfire as Pant has openly spoken of looking upto MS Dhoni, who has been with the yellow army and led them to five IPL title wins.
We will still try, but I don't think we'll be able to get them: Kasi on signing top Indian talent in IPL auction
CSK CEO, Kasi Viswanathan on Saturday, November 9 dropped his first response indirectly pointing to signing the top Indian talent, including the likes of Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul among others. While speaking on Provoke TV with former CSK and Indian batter Ambati Rayudu, Kasi however did not rule out the possibility of going for them at the auction, but admitted that they are keen on getting their own players.
“We had discussions with Ruturaj, the captain, MS (Dhoni) and coach Stephen Fleming before we decided on the retentions. We were very clear that the players that helped the team grow, stabilise in the previous years were the ones very important for the CSK team to continue further," Kasi told former CSK batter Ambati Rayudu during an interaction on Provoke TV. "It was very easy to decide on the retentions -- Gaikwad, Jaddu, MS, Shivam Dube and Matheesha Pathirana. But we knew that if we retain these players, we would have a lesser purse to go into the auction. We knew that we wouldn't be able to compete with the other teams when it comes to the best of the Indian players. I mean, we will still try, but I don't think we'll be able to get them at the auction," he further added.
It is to be noted that CSK retained skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube and MS Dhoni among the Indian talent and went onto retain Sri Lanka quick Matheesha Pathirana as their only overseas signing. With five retentions already and one Right To Match (RTM) card still available to them, they have been left with a purse of INR 55 Crore.
List of players released by Chennai Super Kings ahead of IPL 2025 mega auction:
Moeen Ali, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ajay Mandal, Mukesh Choudhary, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed, Mitchell Santner, Simarjeet Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Richard Gleeson, Avanish Rao Aravelly, Devon Conway.
