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Ahed of the mini-auction for the 2021 season of Indian Premier League (IPL), the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) led by legendary MS Dhoni has decided to retain former India international and specialist T20 player Suresh Raina.
According to a report in The Indian Express, a franchise official has confirmed that Chinna Thala would be part of their squad.
“Yes, we will retain Raina, and Dhoni will be the captain. Apart from Harbhajan Singh, we might release a few more players,” said the CSK official.
Raina had left the CSK bio-bubble in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before the start of IPL 2020. In his absence, CSK had a disastrous season in UAE, as they failed to qualify for the playoffs and finished the season at seventh position.
The 34-year-old is CSK’s most successful batsman with 4,527 runs in 164 matches. Overall, Raina has played 193 games in the lucrative league, scoring as many as 5368 runs – second-highest in IPL history.
Harbhajan Singh announces the end of IPL contract with CSK
Meanwhile, veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has announced that his contract with CSK has come to an end. Bhajji, who played for the franchise in 2018 and 2019 seasons before pulling out of the 2020 edition, confirmed his release through his official Twitter handle on Wednesday.
“As my contract comes to an end with @ChennaiIPL, playing for this team was a great experience..beautiful memories made &some great friends which I will remember fondly for years to come…Thank you @ChennaiIPL, management, staff and fans for a wonderful 2years… All the best,” Harbhajan wrote on the micro-blogging website.
As my contract comes to an end with @ChennaiIPL, playing for this team was a great experience..beautiful memories made &some great friends which I will remember fondly for years to come..Thank you @ChennaiIPL, management, staff and fans for a wonderful 2years.. All the best..🙏
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) January 20, 2021
Overall, Harbhajan is the fifth-highest wicket-taker in the history of IPL. He has picked up 150 scalps from 160 games.
List of released CSK players
Kedar Jadhav, Piyush Chawla, Murali Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Monu Singh
List of retained CSK players
Narayan Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Josh Hazlewood, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Faf du Plessis, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo, Lungi Ngidi, Sam Curran, Sai Kishore.
