204 players were sold and INR 5,51,70,00,000 was splurged amongst the ten franchises during the two-day Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 auction in Bengaluru last week.
The mega-auction, however, saw a lot of surprises, with many prominent names going unsold including former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter Suresh Raina. Fans of the MS Dhoni-led side were shocked to see Raina not being picked in the squad, despite many power-packed performances for the team in IPL as well as the Champions League (CL) Twenty20.
The 2011 World Cup winner represented CSK from 2008 to 2015 in his first stint. Once again, he played for the Yellow Army from 2018 to 2021. He is the fourth-highest run-scorer in IPL history with 5,528 runs in 205 games. The southpaw registered 4,687 runs alone for CSK.
Speaking to CSK for their YouTube channel, the franchise CEO Kasi Viswanath explained why they didn’t bid for Raina at the 2022 IPL auction.
“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,” Viswanath said.
“So that’s one of the reasons why we thought he may not fit into this team,” he further added.
Meanwhile, CSK bought back Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayadu, Mitchell Santner and Robin Uthappa in the auction. They also roped in Deepak Chahar for a whopping amount of Rs 14 crore, making him the most expensive Indian bowler in the history of IPL auction.
