IPL Auction 2022: Suresh Raina, fourth-highest run-getter in IPL hory, goes unsold

Even as IPL franchises splurged the cash on youngsters at the IPL 2022 mega auction, former Indian batsman Suresh Raina went unsold. The dashing southpaw, who had a base price of Rs 2 crore, had been initially ignored franchises during the main round of auction. He also found no takers during the final round of accelerated bidding on Sunday.
The development means that Raina went unsold for the first time at an IPL auction. This will only be the second IPL season he would miss since the competition began in 2008.
Raina is the fourth highest run-getter (5,528 runs) in the hory of the IPL and only has Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma ahead of him.

With age not on his side, missing out on the IPL this year could mean a hard road ahead for Raina to script an unlikely comeback.
He had also missed the IPL 2020 season after returning home due to personal reasons. Raina had travelled to Dubai with the squad but a day after several members of the CSK contingent tested positive for Covid-19, CSK CEO KS Viswanathan stated, “Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of the IPL season. Chennai Super Kings offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time.”
He returned to the CSK outfit in 2021 but had a poor season during which he scored only 160 runs at an average of 17.77. But he has had a stellar IPL career with CSK, scoring 5,528 runs at an average of 32.51 and strike-rate of 136.76. He has also scored one century and 39 half-centuries.

Raina, who had last played in Indian colours in a series in England in July 2018, retired from international cricket in 2020. Soon after MS Dhoni announced his retirement, Raina wrote in an Instagram post, “It was nothing but lovely playing with you, @mahi7781. With my heart full of pride, I choose to join you in this journey. Thank you India. Jai Hind.”
Raina has scored 5,615 runs from 226 ODIs and 1605 from 78 T20Is for India. He was the 12th Indian debutant to score a Test century on doubt but his Test career was outshone his limited-overs career.
He was part of the 2011 World Cup-winning team under Dhoni.