While there were several international stars that went unsold in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction, there was one name on the list that left everyone shocked. Suresh Raina aka Mr IPL did not get a single bid. Even when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were left with more than Raina’s base price remaining in their purse, they chose not to bring back Raina to the squad. A day after the mega event, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanath said that they did not go for Raina as he was not fitting in the defending champions' current composition.
"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," Kasi explained in a video shared by the four-time IPL winners on their YouTube channel.
The 35-year-old went unsold on the first day of the auction. Later when the auctioneer Charu Sharma asked the franchises to submit a list of 20 players each for the second day of the auction, none of the franchises included him. He did not even feature in the last phase of auction.
The former Indian cricketer was not in best of forms in the 2021 season where he scored just 160 runs from 12 games at an average of 17.77 including one half-century.
The southpaw is currently the fourth-highest run-scorer in IPL with 5,528 runs to his name from 200 innings at an average of 32.52 including one century and 40 half-centuries. The explosive batter missed only one season in 2020 due to personal reasons.
