The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction came to an end with 600 players going under the hammer and all 10 squads getting finalized. The bidding event, which went on for a full two days on February 12 and 13, was surely action-packed, but many notable names did not fetch a single bid and went unsold. Among them is veteran batter Suresh Raina. The middle-order batter popularly known as Mr IPL went unsold in IPL mega auction. The UP cricketer, who had kept his base price was INR 2 Crore, failed to receive bids on day one, in fact, franchises did not even show interest in him on the final day as well.
CSK CEO explained that it was dynamics of the auction that they could not retain Raina or even Faf Du Plessis." We will miss him, we will miss Faf who has been with us for the last decade, that’s the process and dynamics of the auction,” CSK CEO said in his parting comment. However, accoding to a InsideSport report there is more than just the team dynamics that forced the men in yellow to snub the veteran. “Yes, Raina failed all 12 games he played during IPL 2021 but so did Dhoni & few others. Since the time Raina was sent back or he came back to India from Dubai things have not been normal between Dhoni & him. He was given IPL 2021 but we saw things were not normal between the two. They never mingled around post IPL 2020”, said one of the CSK source to the sports portal. The other source closer to CSK management told InsideSport that Raina apparently had lost motivation that’s the reason team decided to let him go at the auction. “Even in IPL 2021 he completely lacked motivation. He wasn’t his usual committed self. Post IPL as well he hasn’t made attempts to stay fit. This is the reason CSK management gave up on him”, said the source. As for Raina, it will be only the second time that he won't be playing IPL since its inception in 2008. He had earlier pulled out of the T20 league in 2020 on a personal account.
