Kedar Jadhav Is Released Only Because Of His Price Tag - Gautam Gambhir Lauds CSK's 'Sensible' Retention Strategy

Former India batsman, Gautam Gambhir completely concurs with the decision of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to release middle-order batsman, Kedar Jadhav ahead of the auctions for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Apart from Shane Watson, who has retired from all forms of cricket, CSK has released 5 players: Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay, Monu Kumar, Kedar Jadhav, and Harbhajan Singh for IPL 2021.

Kedar Jadhav’s release was largely speculated. Jadhav’s high price of 7.8 crores, for which he was bought three seasons ago, was hurting the franchise compounded by his low returns with the bat for CSK. For the Men in Yellow, the right-hander has scored 248 runs in 18 innings at an average of 20.67 and a below-than-mediocre strike rate of 96.50.

In IPL 2020, Jadhav was utterly out of touch with the bat – 62 runs in 8 matches at a strike rate of 93. The 35-year-old is also not in the scheme of the national team anymore – he was dropped for the Australia tour.

Gautam Gambhir reckons that had Jadhav’s price been lower, then captain MS Dhoni might have insisted to retain him. And the same assertion can be applied to Piyush Chawla; the left-hander feels since CSK has a couple of leg-spinners already in their squad, they don’t mind leaving out Chawla with an expensive price tag.

“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,” Gautam Gambhir told Star Sports.

“Piyush Chawla, probably for the price tag and they have a replacement for him in Karn Sharma and Imran Tahir,” the former opener added.

Overall revamp does not mean that you change the entire team: Gautam Gambhir

The former Kolkata Knight Riders captain points out that CSK has released few players despite a disappointing season last year – the 3-time IPL champions failed to qualify for the playoff for the first time in their history.

Gautam Gambhir reckons the Dhoni-led franchise is focussing only on the upcoming season and not on the future, hence, instead of leaving out too many players they are putting their faith in the experienced guys once again.

“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 have qualified for the playoffs every time, probably because of that we were asking if they need an overall revamp,” Gautam Gambhir said.

“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,” he further added.

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