Suresh Raina: An IPL legend forever
Many experienced and emerging players pocketed a phenomenal amount of money at the recently-concluded IPL 2022 mega auction. However, there were many international stalwarts who found no buyers at the two-day event in Bengaluru with Suresh Raina being one of the prominent names. Thus, Raina went unsold at an IPL auction for the very first time in his illustrious career.
Even though no team showed interest in having the southpaw on board, it cannot be denied that the middle-order batter is one of the prolific run-getters in IPL history. In fact, he had occupied the ‘Numero Uno’ spot for quite a while as well. Unfortunately, the UP-born cricketer had two forgettable seasons. He backed out from the 2020 edition due to personal reasons and was unimpressive in the last season just managing 160 runs averaging 17.77.
Here’s what makes Suresh Raina an IPL legend
Suresh Raina will not be featuring in the 15th edition of the marquee tournament and this would be the second time that he won’t be a part of the IPL after the 2020 season. Nonetheless, it must be noted that the swashbuckling left-hander is still one of the top run-getters in the prestigious tournament’s history. He occupies the fourth position having amassed 5528 runs from 205 outings averaging 32.51 at a strike rate of 136.76 including a century and 39 half-centuries.
The senior cricketer back when he used to be at the peak of his career scored runs for fun during the IPL knockouts. He has amassed 714 runs from 24 matches averaging 37.57, and a strike rate of 155.2, including seven half-centuries. He also holds the record of having scored the most number of fours and sixes at the business end as well with 51 boundaries and 40 maximums respectively. Apart from all these, Raina remains the first and only player to win the Player of the Match award in the Qualifier, Eliminator and the final.
An injury meant that his former Indian teammate Robin Uthappa replaced him in the last season’s playoffs and was very impactful on the 22 yards as CSK won their fourth IPL crown.
