One of the biggest surprises of the IPL 2022 auction was the fact that Suresh Raina went unsold.
Raina has been a consistent performer in the IPL for Chennai Super Kings since the tournament’s inception back in 2008. The left-hander is also the fourth-highest run-getter in the tourney and he is well known as Mr. IPL.
Raina had set his base price at INR 2 crores but surprisingly CSK didn’t bid for him. The southpaw has scored 5528 runs in 205 IPL matches at an average of 32.51 and a strike rate of 136.73. Thus, he always played an instrumental role in the success of CSK. He scored 39 fifties in the tournament and also took 109 catches.
But Raina didn’t have the best of runs in the previous season as he scored 160 runs in 12 matches at an average of 17.77. CSK CEO Kasi Vishwanathan revealed that Raina would not have fit into the current team’s composition due to his form. Furthermore, Raina hasn’t been playing regular cricket, which led to his ouster from CSK.
“Raina has been one of the most consistent performers for CSK for the last 12 years. Of course, it was very difficult for us, not to have Raina but at the same time, you should also understand that the team composition depends on the form and kind of team which any team would like to have so that’s one of the reasons why we thought he may not fit into this team.”
On the other hand, CSK had to let go of Faf du Plessis, who had amassed 633 runs in 16 matches of the previous season and had finished as the second-highest run-getter in the edition. The former South African captain was roped in by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 7 crores.
“We will miss him, we will miss Faf who has been with us for the last decade, that’s the process and dynamics of the auction.”
Meanwhile, CSK once again invested in players like Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Bravo and Robin Uthappa. They also purchased Deepak Chahar for a huge amount of INR 14 crores.
CSK Squad: Batters: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Robin Uthappa, Devon Conway, Subhranshu Senapati, Hari Nishanth
Wicketkeepers: MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeeshan
Allrounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, Dwayne Bravo, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorious, Mitchell Santner, Chris Jordan, Bhagath Verma
Bowlers: Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, Simarjeet Singh, Mahesh Theekhana, Adam Milne, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki.
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