Former India opening batter Virender Sehwag feels that the relationship between Chennai Super Kings and Suresh Raina was soured because the cricketer left the franchise right before the start of IPL 2020 in the UAE. He reckons this is why CSK decided to not buy back Raina in the IPL 2022 mega-auction in February.
It was a big moment when Suresh Raina went unsold in the mega-auction; moreover, it was shocking that CSK didn’t even put up a bid for their all-time leading IPL run-scorer.
Virender Sehwag reckoned the 4-time IPL champions could have bought Suresh Raina for his base price of 2 crore and played him one or two games as his farewell match.
“I felt sad for Suresh Raina. He played for so many years in CSK colours, did so much for the team and I felt he should have got a farewell. They could’ve picked him for 2 crores and played him in a couple of games before saying thank you for your contributions. CSK is known to retain most of their players at the auction but they missed a trick here,” Sehwag said while speaking with Cricbuzz.
Sehwag opined that Raina pulling out of the IPL 2020 and returning from UAE to India hurt the franchise. There are various reasons floating around Raina’s pull out that season – the death of his uncle, covid-19 positive cases in the CSK camp; few reports also said the southpaw was unhappy with not being given a room with a balcony! – and although he returned to the side in IPL 2021, his form was poor and was also suffered an injury.
“Maybe what happened in Dubai, Suresh Raina left the team and came back that might have affected his relations with the team. But despite all of that for his contributions that he made over the years, he deserved a fitting farewell.
“I don’t think 2 crore is a huge amount and I don’t think they even had a discussion over his base price. It was just that they felt that they didn’t want to pick Suresh Raina because of what had happened in Dubai,” Virender Sehwag opined.
Suresh 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. Instead, he has joined the Star Sports Hindi commentary panel.
