IPL 2021: Suresh Raina updates on his participation after the tournament gets shifted to the UAE

Suresh Raina, the former Indian cricketer, didn’t take part in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The southpaw cited ‘personal reasons’ to back out at the last minute, leaving the Chennai Super Kings depleted. Last year, MS Dhoni and Co, for the first time in the IPL, failed to qualify for the playoffs. They lost a series of games to start with and couldn’t garner momentum.

Later, rumours said that Raina had left CSK and would be turning out for some other franchise. However, in 2021, the left-hander returned to the Super Kings. Back on May 4 when the IPL was suspended due to the emergence of COVID-19 cases in the bio-security bubble, Raina was in impressive enough form as he scored 123 runs with the highest score of 54.

In the meantime, it’s been learned that the second leg of IPL 2021 would take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from September. The last time when the event took place in the gulf country, Raina didn’t take part. However, this time around, he’s all set to go to the UAE. He shared a picture alongside MS Dhoni, the CSK skipper, to put forth the revelations.

He captioned the picture and wrote, “See you soon Dubai @msdhoni @IPL @ChennaiIPL.”

Here’s Suresh Raina’s post:

See you soon Dubai 💪🏏 @msdhoni @IPL @ChennaiIPL pic.twitter.com/5nWAZZ5BqJ

— Suresh Raina🇮🇳 (@ImRaina) May 29, 2021

Jay Shah opines 

In the meantime, Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said that the IPL was moved to the UAE due to the weather conditions in India. He said that it “doesn’t make any sense” to host the IPL in India because of the monsoon.

“See we took this decision to conduct IPL in the UAE because it will be monsoon here and it will not be feasible to hold matches here in September and that is why we are taking IPL to the UAE,” Shah was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times.

“We are moving IPL to the UAE only due to weather restrictions as we cannot hold IPL here at the time of monsoon. How can we hold IPL in September in Mumbai or Ahmedabad or any other venues at the time of monsoon? It doesn’t make any sense,” he stated.