Highlights:
- Suresh Raina pulled out of IPL 2020 quoting personal reasons
- Shane Watson things there is a player in CSK who can replace Suresh Raina this IPL
- Shane Watson says “He is a seriously good batsman”
All the 8 franchises in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League have reached to the United Arab Emirates, however, no other team have faced challenges like the Chennai Super Kings.
Initially, they looked to be in a good flow with Captain M S Dhoni and Vice-Captain Suresh Raina leading the charge but soon news came of 2 of its players and several staff members testing positive for the novel Coronavirus which caused a huge delay in the start of their training sessions.
Soon after news emerged that Suresh Raina is returning back to India citing personal reasons. It was not specified why Raina returned to India but there had been several floating reports regarding the matter.
Suresh Raina absence in IPL 2020 will be a big blow for the Chennai based IPL franchise as he has been a key player who led the team to their success in the part with consistent performances as a batsman and even as a fielder.
The team management will soon have to deal with his absence and find someone to hold the batting department together.
Former Australian captain Shane Watson recently talked about Suresh Raina’s departure from IPL 2020 and stated that it would be hard to replace such a vital batsman in the 13th season of the IPL given the phenomenal record he has had.
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On a YouTube show hosted by Nabeel Hashmi, Shane Watson said, “We have to (deal with the absence of Raina, Harbhajan). The great thing with CSK, as with all IPL squads, is that they have a lot of depth. It’s going to be incredibly hard to replace Suresh Raina. You can’t. He scored the second-most runs in the IPL, played the most games in IPL history. He has got records left, right and centre,”.
Watson also said, “He is going to be hugely missed, knowing the conditions in the UAE is hot, more chances of wickets being drier and turning a bit more. Raina plays spin incredibly well as well.”
If you think Shane Watson does not have a player in mind who can take Suresh Raina’s place in IPL 2020 then we are sorry to inform you, you are wrong.
Shane Watson thinks that Murali Vijay is a very capable batsman and has what it takes to perform for CSK in the UAE.
Watson said, “No doubt he [Raina] is a big loss but we have got someone like Murali Vijay, who is a gun player. In T20 cricket, he has not got a lot of opportunities in the last few years. But he is a seriously good batsman.”
The 39 year old cricketer added, “He was sitting on the sidelines last year, he might get more opportunities this year,”.
Chennai Super Kings will open their campaign on the 19th of September when they will face the defending champions Mumbai Indians in the first match of IPL 2020.
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