More than 550 crores spent by 10 franchises to pick a total of 204 players at the IPL auction 2022, but none of them cared to spend money on Suresh Raina – The ‘Mr IPL’, who was once touted as the representative of the T20 extravaganza. (More Cricket News)
A proud owner of 5528 runs across 205 games at an average of 32.51 and a strike rate of 136.73 with 39 fifties and a century, Suresh Raina's IPL record reflects why the left-handed batsman, who also bowled off-spin, was among the favourites in the tournament history and why everyone was surprised at he remaining unsold even in the accelerated bidding round on the final day of IPL auction 2022 in Bengaluru on February 13.
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Yes, the fact cannot be ignored that IPL 2021 saw Raina in his worst of forms. A meagre 160 runs across 12 matches at an average of 17.77 was his lowest-ever in IPL. Yet many cricket veterans felt that the Chennai Super Kings prima donna deserved a second chance.
Given that CSK splurged a whopping INR 14 crore on Deepak Chahar and retained an ageing MS Dhoni for INR 12 crores, including a big player of Raina’s stature at his base price of INR 2 crore would not have been a bad idea.
“Still think Raina could have been pushed. We have seen some foreign players who have played IPL till 40.Raina is 35! One bad season. #MrIPL,” said former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan on Raina getting ignored at the auction.
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Raina - The 'backbone' of CSK
Such has been the aura of Suresh Raina that even his former franchise CSK, with whom he played 11 seasons, had to admit that getting a replacement for him would be an uphill task for them.
“Raina has been the backbone of our team for the last 12 years. So it will take some time before we get a (proper) replacement,” CSK CEO Kasi Viswanath was quoted as saying.
“Raina has been one of the most consistent performers for CSK for the last 12 years. Of course, it was very difficult for us, not 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,” said the senior CSK official.
A setback is nothing new for a player who has represented India, but age does create a doubt in mind for a comeback. This is because the demand of being physically strong also becomes a big ask, apart from a positive attitude to compete with younger and skillful players.
Raina - A Tenacious Fighter
After making his India debut way back in 2005, Raina failed to live up to the expectations and got dropped from the team. He remained patient, scored lots of domestic runs and eventually came back, and later cemented his spot in Team India’s playing XI.
An MS Dhoni favourite, he even had to deal with a knee surgery in between, that kept him out of the game for a fair amount of time. However, it is worth noting that the period we are talking about is when Suresh Raina was in his early 20s, he was quick, determined and ambitious.
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Raina now is above 35 and retired from international cricket. And the worst of all, putting complete focus on IPL saw him giving too less time to domestic cricket, despite his last appearance for India coming in July, 2018.
Since October 27, 2018 Raina has not played a single List A game for Uttar Pradesh. He did feature in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for UP last year, but a mediocre performance made his case weak.
He had already missed IPL 2020 due to “personal reasons” by then, and the following season was also a forgettable one for him. It all seemed to have piled up for Raina and the final snub has seemingly come in IPL auction 2022.
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Future Tense!
Mr IPL went unsold at the auction, breaking the hearts of millions of fans. What about Raina now? Is it the end of road for him or the champion player will bounce back?
"This is not a failure," Raina had told ESPNCricinfo when he was axed from India’s squad 15 years back.
"The drop is a positive thing for me. If I am not doing well, I will obviously get dropped. But I only got one game there. I knew I will get more chances in the future. I think I was dropped because they must have thought I wouldn't get chances there and they wanted me to come back and build some confidence."
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Jump back to 2022, life seems to have come full circle for Raina (with no disregard to his achievements). But the biggest question is: Does he still have the same energy and love for the game he used to have in his early 20s? Can he still make a comeback?
Only time and Raina’s efforts can tell if he has cricket left in him.
