Former New Zealand pacer and renowned commentator Simon Doull believes that Suresh Raina had “lost the loyalty of MS Dhoni” and the Chennai Super Kings. Hence, he believes, the 4-time IPL champions didn’t bid for the left-handed batsman at the recently-concluded IPL 2022 mega-auction.
One of the big stories from the mega-auction was that Raina, also known as Mr IPL for his massive success in the tournament, not only went unsold – but that CSK didn’t bid for him has upset the fans. Raina had put his base price at INR 2 crore; none of the franchises bid for him and he wasn’t recalled later on by any franchise.
Simon Doull opined that Raina had lost the loyalty from CSK when he pulled out of the IPL 2020 last minute.
There have been various reasons known for Raina returning to India before start of the IPL 2020 in the UAE – death of his uncle, covid-19 positive cases in CSK then; few reports also said the southpaw was unhappy with not being given a balcony! – and although he returned to the side in IPL 2021, his form was poor, suffered an injury giving way to Robin Uthappa, who played two match-winning knocks in the playoffs.
Speaking on the Cricbuzz Live show, Simon Doull said: “There are 2 to 3 parts to it. He lost his loyalty in the UAE. We don’t need to go into why that was but you know there’s enough speculation about that, so he lost the loyalty. Of all the team, he lost the loyalty of MS Dhoni. So once you do that, you are very very unlikely to be welcomed back. He’s not fit and he is scared of the short ball.”
Despite being out of form last season, and his perennial struggles against short ball well-documented, Raina opted out of the white-ball domestic season goneby. Raina not playing any domestic matches to prove his form and fitness was perhaps the final nail in the coffin for CSK to not bid for him.
Raina had been a bank in the batting department for CSK for years – he scored over 350 runs each season from 2008 to 2019 – however, he won’t be seen in the yellow anymore.
