Former Indian all-rounder, Suresh Raina, who had missed the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2020, is “super excited” about joining the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squad ahead of the upcoming season of the tournament. Raina had missed the entire season last year after pulling out of the tournament due to personal reasons. The star batsman has been a key player for CSK and in his absence, the team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in last year’s IPL.
The Chennai-based franchise finished seventh in the IPL points table but with Suresh Raina set to return to the fold, CSK will be looking to get back to winning ways in IPL 2021. CSK on Wednesday shared Raina’s practice video in which the batsman can be seen hitting all his trademark shots. Captioning video on Raina on Twitter, CSK wrote: “In awe of the southpaw! #ChinnaThala – Coming Soon with #WhistlePodu #Yellov.” Reacting to the video, Raina said,” Super Excited and Eagerly waiting to come to our den.”
Super Excited and Eagerly waiting to come to our den #Yellove @msdhoni @SPFleming7 @russcsk ! 🏏✅🤟 https://t.co/pGOZLclzGT
— Suresh Raina🇮🇳 (@ImRaina) March 17, 2021
Meanwhile, CSK skipper MS Dhoni has already started preparing for the IPL season beginning from April 9. Last week, CSK posted a video on Twitter in which Dhoni can be seen tonking the ball out of the park during a net session. CSK will start their season against last year’s runners-up Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 10.
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Before the mini-auction, Dhoni-led CSK had released Harbhajan Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, and Piyush Chawla from the squad. Shane Watson who had announced his retirement after the IPL 2020 season was also not be seen in action. Apart from the Aussie all-rounder, no other foreign player was released from the squad.
In the players’ auction held on February 18, Chennai bought the likes of Moeen Ali and K Gowtham. The side also added Cheteshwar Pujara to their ranks for IPL 2021.
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CSK retained players: MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suresh Raina, Sam Curran, Josh Hazlewood, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Narayan Jagadeesan, KM Asif, Lungi Ngidi, Sai Kishore
