I Became A Real Player While Playing For CSK: Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina has credited his stint with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for his success and has said that he became a real player after playing for the franchise. Raina, who made international debut in 2005, played for Chennai Super Kings in all the first eight editions of the T20 league,

“We have played so many matches together. We had to play for CSK again. In fact, I became a real player in Chennai. The coaches and the players there like Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Muttiah Muralitharan had a fine influence on me. I have learnt a lot from them. It’s not a team but like a family. The amount of love I have got from fans was great. It was a great team atmosphere. Many players like (Ravichandran) Ashwin, (Pawan) Negi, Jadeja came up from CSK. You have to perform to play and I’m looking forward to playing for Chennai again. We all are excited to regroup,” he told PTI.

Raina is the highest capped player for Chennai Super Kings as he never missed a game for the franchise, which shows his commitment to this side. In fact, he has just made two games in the history of IPL, both of which came in IPL 2016 while playing for Gujarat Lions.

Raina will now again play for CSK as he was the second preference of the franchise on the IPL retention day. MS Dhoni was franchise’ first preference whereas Ravindra Jadeja was their third preference. He (Raina) has also been appointed as the vice-captain of the side for the upcoming season.

Meanwhile, Raina returned to form and scored the first century of the domestic season. This was also the first time when he crossed the 50-run mark in the season. Raina played an innings of 126* off 59 for Uttar Pradesh and riding on his century, UP were able to post a total of 235 on the board.

In the chase to this total, Bengal were dismissed on 160 to lose the game by 75 runs.

If Raina can continue his form in the remaining games of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League, then he could really press his for selection in the T20I squad for the South Africa series as team India needs experienced players in South Africa, especially after losing the Test series.

He has already cleared the yo-yo test and a few more good innings in the remaining games can see him making a comeback to the India side as he was never out of contention from the T20I side and it was only the failure in clearing yo-y test that saw Raina not being considered for a place in the side.

The T20I squad for the series is yet to be announced, and the performances of players in the ongoing T20 competition will be considered for selection. Rishabh Pant will also be on selectors’ radar.

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