Rishabh Pant will be in the mega auction for IPL 2025. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan has cleared his stance on Rishabh Pant.
Pant has been released by the Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2025. Reports were that CSK will be eyeing Pant in the upcoming mega auction. The speculations have been going on for some time now that CSK is interested in Pant for the IPL.
Club legend and former captain MS Dhoni is towards the last phase of his career and the Super Kings badly need someone to replace him. Pant fits in the CSK setup as he’s a wicket-keeper who bats in the middle order.
Kasi Viswanathan was talking with former CSK and India player Ambati Rayudu on Provoke TV. On being asked about CSK’s stance on Pant he said that they’ll try to target some of the big Indian players in the auction. He also admitted that with 5 retentions, it won’t be easier for them to compete with the other teams.
CSK will try to get Rishabh Pant or other big Indian 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 who helped the team grow, and stabilise in the previous years were the ones very important for the CSK team to continue further”, he said.
Regarding the retentions, he said, “It was very easy to decide on the retentions — Gaikwad, Jaddu, MS, Shivam Dube and Matheesha Pathirana. But we knew that if we retained 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 came 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”.
It seems that CSK will try to get the big names like Pant, KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan. But, they know that most probably other teams with bigger purses will have the advantage.
The 5-time champions have retained Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana and MS Dhoni (uncapped) ahead of the mega auction. They have INR 65 crores left in the purse for the auction.
