Over the years, Chennai Super Kings and Suresh Raina become synonymous with each other. It almost became difficult to imagine one without the other. The same was evident from the fact that while captain MS Dhoni came to be known as the “Thala” by the CSK fans, Raina was regarded as the “Chinna Thala.” Probably that was the reason that even when Raina was not retained by the Men in Yellow after a poor IPL 2021, there was hope that Chennai might buy him back at the auction.
However, CSK did not put in a bid for Raina. Even more shockingly the 35-year-old could not find a buyer for himself at the auctions. The left-handed batter, however, hasn’t played a lot of cricket lately and that may have fared against him at the bidding war.
Post the two-day event in Bengaluru, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan has revealed the real reason behind not being able to pick Raina. He stated that the current form and the requirement of the team were among the major reasons behind the team not going for the batter with over 5500 runs in the T20 tournament who was even known as Mr IPL.
“Raina has been a consistent performer over a decade, it was so difficult not to have him but at the same time, team combination depends on form & kind of team which any team like to have & that one of the reasons why Raina won’t fit into the team, we will miss him,” Viswanathan reportedly said.
While Raina was ignored, CSK did get back some of their proven stars- the likes of Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo and Deepak Chahar at the auctions. Chahar was the costliest purchase for Chennai as they roped him for Rs 14 crore, making him the most expensive fast bowler in the bidding tussle.
Before the auctions, Chennai had retained Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni and Moeen Ali and with some smart purchases like that of Devon Conway, CSK are looking set to continue their remarkable consistent run in IPL.
