Why Suresh Raina is not playing in IPL 2024?

Amidst this joy and excitement of IPL, there is a little bit of sadness. In this new phase of IPL, fans will not be able to witness some of the most popular cricketers who have became IPL legends. A few big names are going to miss IPL because of different reasons. Some have announced retirement, some decided to opt out of auction while some were left unsold at the auction. One such big name who is going to miss IPL 2024 is Suresh Raina. Chennai Super Kings were the winner of IPL 2021 and Raina was a part of it. Fans are confused and wanted to know why Suresh Raina is not playing in IPL 2024?

Why Suresh Raina is not playing in IPL ?

Suresh Raina is not playing in IPL because he announced his retirement from IPL on 6th September 2022. It was quite shocking to see that Raina went unsold in the IPL 2022 auctions. Raina didn’t find any buyer at the IPL 2022 Mega Auctions. This was the most shocking event of IPL 2022 auctions. This was the first time when Raina went unsold in an IPL auction.

This was quite shocking because Suresh Raina has been associated with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) since the start of IPL. Besides this, he is also very close to skipper MS Dhoni. Everyone expected that CSK will pick Raina but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

Why Suresh Raina went unsold in IPL 2022 Mega Auctions?

It is very hard to believe that Raina went unsold at the mega auction. The reason behind this was his base price and his age. Raina’s base price was set at Rs 2 crore which was quite large for other franchises and therefore it was difficult for the teams to bid for him. Another reasons was his performance in IPL 2021. Suresh Raina is known as MR IPL but his performance has degraded since last few years. In 2021, he played 12 matches where he scored a total of 383 runs at an average of 17.77.

Why CSK didn’t buy Suresh Raina?

Chennai Super Kings has won the most number of IPL titles owing to their policy of sticking with players for long term and establishing faith in veteran players. Raina was a part of CSK since the start of IPL in 2008. In 2022 mega auctions, a team could retain only four players. CSK decided to retain MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali. In the auctions, CSK brought back Dwayne Bravo and players like Ambati Raydu and Robin Uthappa who were also old but the team didn’t bid for Raina and he went unsold.

Chennai Super Kings CEO gave the following statement on why CSK didn’t buy Suresh Raina at the mega 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, no 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 so that’s one of the reasons why we thought he may not fit into this team.”

A former New Zealand cricketer gave the following statement on Suresh Raina:

There are two to three parts to it. He lost his loyalty in the UAE, we don’t need to go on (and talk about) why it was. There’s enough speculation about that. He lost the loyalty of the team and he lost the loyalty of MS Dhoni. Once you do that, you’re very unlikely to be welcomed back.”