Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar said he was surprised that there were no takers for Suresh Raina at the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction. Raina, 35, went unsold on Day 1 of the mega auction in Bengaluru and was not even part of the list of players who were called back for the accelerated process towards the end of the second day of the bidding process.
Suresh Raina, who had his base price of Rs 2 crore, did not even get a bid from his former franchise Chennai Super Kings, eventually going unsold for the first time in the history of the tournament.
Speaking to Sports Tak, Sunil Gavaskar said he was not surprised by the fact that the likes of Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra went unsold because they are “one-dimensional” players but Raina, a handy all-rounder, not attracting a bid did surprise the legendary opener.
Despite some teams having been on short supply of experienced India batters, a bid did not come Raina’s way. The ‘Chinna Thala’ of CSK might have even played his last IPL match, ending a storied career in which he was a pillar of strength for the Super Kings.
“For Raina, I was definitely surprised. He is left-handed, does off-spin bowling, and is experienced,” Gavaskar said.
“In the last season, in the Dubai pitches, where there is a lot of bounce, he did look a little scared and this is why I feel people must have felt that even in India we will have fast bowlers and so maybe he wasn’t picked for that reason. But only the franchises could tell us why they had this feeling about him,” he added.
