Kumar Sangakkara reveals why Suresh Raina went unsold in mega auction

Suresh Raina is known as Mr. Indian T20 League because of the way he dominated the tournament with his bat. Except for the season in 2021, Raina scored over 350 runs in all the other editions of the Indian T20 League.

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He has played 205 Indian T20 League matches in his career, scoring 5528 runs in them. An average of 32.51 in a volatile format like T20 is more than impressive, along with a strike rate of 136.76. He was mostly a part of the Chennai franchise throughout his Indian T20 League career. For Chennai, he always left an impact and was the match-winner for them in many big games. Fans were thus surprised when Chennai did not bid for Raina in the mega auction for Indian T20 League 2022.

Kumar Sangakkara, former Sri Lankan star batter and current Rajasthan franchise’s team director expressed his opinion on why Raina went unsold in the auction. He said that the auction dynamics change each year and it is the market demand of that year that determines which players will get sold for high prices and who would go unsold. Sangakkara feels that going unsold in the auction is not a testimony of how good you are.

“When you go into the granular detail, perhaps the player is not suited for that season. It takes nothing away from the player being one of the best, or the player being of absolutely high quality and it is something that analysts, coaches, and owners look for,” Sangakkara said on a podcast called ‘Red Bull Cricket’ on Clubhouse.

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The 15th edition of the Indian T20 League will be the second one that Raina will miss as a player. In 2020, Raina did not participate in the tournament as it shifted to UAE due to COVID-19 in India. Raina cited personal reasons in 2020 as he pulled out of the tournament.