Hours after off-spinner Harbhajan Singh announced that his contract with the IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings had ended, the management announced that CSK will retain Suresh Raina for the 2021 IPL season.

Confirming that the team is set to retain foreign players Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo as well, a CSK source informed a news agency that the management will take a final call on Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay and Piyush Chawla before submitting the final list to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at 5 pm on Wednesday. "Raina will definitely be a part of the CSK family. He is an integral member and there was never any doubt on him being retained. It was his personal call to return from UAE and the management was clear that his space needed to be respected. We expect him to fire on all cylinders this time around," the source was quoted as saying.

Indicating that the franchise might likely let go of Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay and Kedar Jadhav, the source added, "As for Kedar, Piyush and Vijay, we will have to see. It is a touch and go situation and a final call will be taken by the senior management before the final list is submitted to the BCCI today. Harbhajan has been released as you are aware and Watson has retired. Apart from that, don't see any big name missing out. Bravo and du Plessis will be with us."