Sri Lankan legend and Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara, has shared his thoughts on the possible reason behind Suresh Raina going unsold at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction despite being "an absolute legend" in the T20 league.
Like Raina, several other Indian and international stars failed to attract a franchise in the IPL 2022 auction, with several young guns making huge noise at the two-day auction last month in Bengaluru.
Well, one of the most notable and shocking names was Raina, who didn’t find a buyer at the IPL 2022 mega auction despite being a consistent performer until last season in the cash-rich T20 league. He is currently at No. 4 in the leading run-getters list in the IPL.
Notably, Raina was part of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the longest time, but the defending champions didn’t show any interest in him at the auction, and Sangakkara said that going unsold doesn't mean the former Indian batter is suddenly a bad cricketer, while opining that his form in the last IPL 2021 could have been a reason for going unsold at the IPL 2022 auction.
Sangakkara said at the Red Bull Cricket discussion on Clubhouse app: “There are different ways to look at it. As the years go by, players change and reputations are also made new by younger players.”
He signed off by saying, “In the case of Suresh Raina, his reputation is unbelievable in IPL cricket. He has been an absolute legend, one of the best and top-most performers season after season. When you go into granular detail, perhaps the player is not suited for that season. It takes nothing away from the player being one of the best ever, or the player being of absolute high quality and it is something that analysts, coaches and owners look for.”
