MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina officially returned to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after the announcement was made at the IPL 2018 player retention event on Thursday.
Ravindra Jadeja was also retained by CSK which will return to Indian Premier League after a gap of two years.
CSK will pay Rs 15 crore to Dhoni for his services. Raina and Jadeja, the other two retained players, will get Rs 11 crore and Rs 7 crore respectively.
Suresh Raina has always been a vital cog in the Chennai team. Though most would associate CSK with Dhoni, Raina is an equally valuable member of the franchise, and hence the management was forced to retain a player who is currently out of the national team, by sacrificing a great bowler like Ravichandran Ashwin.
The southpaw who averages over 33 in T20 matches shared his delight on Twitter, where he wrote: “Taking a trip to nostalgia! There is no bigger joy then reuniting with your family & the force of reunion is unstoppable! 💪#Chennai here we come to make the celebration of 378 years even more special!💥 #IPLRetention #CSK #WhistlePodu ChennaiIPL @IPL @msdhoni @imjadeja”.
Taking a trip to nostalgia! There is no bigger joy then reuniting with your family & the force of reunion is unstoppable! 💪#Chennai here we come to make the celebration of 378 years even more special! 💥#IPLRetention #CSK #WhistlePodu @ChennaiIPL @IPL @msdhoni @imjadeja
— Suresh Raina🇮🇳 (@ImRaina) January 4, 2018
#ChinnaThala rocks! Welcome back to the den! #WhistlePodu https://t.co/ouM1K9lzTd
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) January 4, 2018
Raina is the all-time leading run-scorer in the IPL with 4540 runs. He is currently 122 runs ahead of Virat Kohli (4418 runs), who was also retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore.
