Suresh Raina's love for CSK remains intact despite the axe

It is not always easy for a cricketer to get adjusted to the harsh reality of getting ignored, especially for a tournament which he had dominated in the past. Suresh Raina is one such cricketer who has made the headlines post the mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) held last month as he failed to get any team.

But the 35-year-old southpaw did not forget his old team, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the franchise for which he has played a number of memorable knocks over the years and helped it win the coveted title on more than one occasion.

That Raina, the fourth highest scorer in IPL with over five-and-half thousand runs, did not forget the Super Kings became evident when he remarked on a post that the franchise made on their Instagram account about their star batter Ambati Rayudu.

Raina remembers his old team and colleague

In their account, the CSK posted a picture of a bespectacled Ambati and captioned it, “Amba-ck in the house of Yellove!” In the picture Rayudu is seen staring at the camera with a background featuring CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and ace players Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja.

 

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Raina reacted to the picture saying, “Legend” and followed it up with two emojis – of love and blessing.

The dashing left-handed batter played 11 years for the CSK and scored 4,687 runs for the same franchise. CSK chief executive officer Kashi Viswanath called him the team’s “one of the most consistent performers” and conceded that it was difficult for them to ignore Raina in this year’s auction. However, explaining the reason for the Super Kings ignoring the experienced batter, the top official said in a video which was shared by CSK on their YouTube channel, “… 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.”

Rayudu, on the other hand, was picked by the Kings at INR 9.75 crore at the auction. Chennai battled it out with Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals to secure the batter, the 13th highest scorer in IPL, in their squad.