Suresh Raina trends on Twitter as reports hint new rules for IPL 2022 Mega auction

The second half of the 14^th edition Indian Premier League (IPL) will get underway on September 15. While the excitement is slowly building, it is the mega auction in the year 2022 that has already grabbed eyeballs. Apart from Right to Match Card (RTM) and numbers in player retention, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is also planning to add two new teams to the IPL.

If reports are to be believed, then the BCCI will allow each of the eight franchises to retain four players, with either retaining three Indian players or one overseas player, or two Indian and two overseas players each. While the majority of the eight teams have a plan on what players they need to retain, it is the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who are a bit desperate to start from scratch, after most of their players will call it quits either in one or two years.

The CSK were famously called ‘Dad’s Army’ in the year 2018 when the management and skipper MS Dhoni picked the majority of players who were above 30. While the team went onto bag the third IPL trophy, it failed to get going in 2020, when CSK for the first time failed to qualify to the playoffs.

The franchise however has managed to bring youth into the squad by including Sam Curren, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Sai Kishore in the team. But, with the mega auction coming up, it would be interesting to see if they retain players who are above 30.

Suresh Raina an integral part of the CSK team

It’s no secret that Suresh Raina admires and is very close to his CSK skipper Dhoni. So much so that, he announced his retirement soon after the 39-year-old announced it in 2020. Raina is with CSK since the inception of the league and is fondly called ‘Chinna Thaala’ by the Chennai fans.

Over the past 14 years, the southpaw has won matches on its own for the yellow team and is their leading run-scorer too. But with age catching up, the franchise might not retain him and try out some fresh faces in the squad.

The fans have given their verdict on retaining Raina in the CSK team for the 2022 auction. Here are some of the tweets:

Raina above dhoni saab for csk✊✊

— ARNAV (@104off64) July 5, 2021

#ipl2022
Four players who may be retained for @ChennaiIPL

1.Mahi
2.Suresh Raina
2.Jaddu
3.Sam Curran #ipl2022 pic.twitter.com/mkChCGhKlU

— Fan Club Cricket2021 (@ClubCricket2021) July 5, 2021

Trending @ImRaina✨ | #Raina❤#SureshRaina
pic.twitter.com/ocsC37jOWd

— 💎Jerry💎 (@SiDDu_Raina3) July 5, 2021

“Raina” is Trending !! #SureshRaina @ImRaina

— Bannu Tarakian (@Bannu4Tarak) July 5, 2021

MI – Rohit, Pollard, Pandya, Bumrah
CSK – Raina, Faf, Jadeja, Sam Curran
RCB – Virat, Chahal, AB De, Paddikal
DC – Shreyas, Pant, Shaw, Rabada
PKS – Rahul, Gayle, Mayank, Malan
RR – Sanju, Butter, Archer, Stokes
SRH – Kane, Warner, Rashid, Bhuvi
KKR – Gill, Rana, Cummins, Varun

— Abhay ✍ (@Abhay29121995) July 5, 2021

Majority Of #CSK fans conveniently ignoring #Raina who had been back bone for this franchise since initiation of IPL😷
He shud be the first name to be retained no matter what🙏🏻#IPL2022#MegaAuction#WhistlePodu pic.twitter.com/mlalEW0bLP

— Arjun (@JerseyNo36) July 5, 2021

My retention picks for #CSK
1-MS Dhoni
2- Jadeja
3- Faf du plessis
4 – Raina
#IPL2022

— 🇮🇳Aman Pathak࿗ (@aman_ki_baat_) July 5, 2021

I can't imagine csk without suresh Raina he is the backbone of the csk team he must be retain by the management

— Navneet raina (@Navneetraina17) July 5, 2021

CSK must retain Raina
Most of people ignoring #Raina , I think they forgot once he was backbone of #CSK #SarkaruVaariPaata

— Kishore MB (@KishoreMB4) July 5, 2021

So CSK shud retain 1. #MSDhoni 2. #Raina 3. #jaddu 4. #samcurran likely 🤗 Can pull back Faf, Raidu, Mo in Auction. Also they have to aim for some young guns from other teams. Let's see. @ChennaiIPL #CSK 🤘

— PrasaD 😎 (@irprashad) July 5, 2021