Chennai Super Kings stalwart Suresh Raina shocked the world pulling out of the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. Since the news broke out, a lot of theories have been going around about the reason behind his departure.
After his international retirement, Raina was looking forward to IPL 2020. He took part in the five-day training camp in Chennai before flying to the UAE on August 21. However, he suddenly decided against playing in the tournament and return back to India. Since then, a lot of speculations have been going around on his decision.
Suresh Raina pulled out of IPL 2020 due to COVID-19 fear
While a couple of reports suggested Raina returned due to a personal loss in his family. On the other hand, TOI reported that Suresh Raina felt homesick in these difficult time with his family including his wife and two children back in India.
Well, Ajay Sethi, chairman of the Channel 2 Group which holds broadcast rights of major cricketing events in UAE and also a family friend of the Raina, has confirmed the reason behind the withdrawal. Speaking to Gulf News, he has confirmed that Suresh Raina pulled out due to COVID-19 fear.
“Suresh (Raina) called me back after repeated messages from me during the day. He apologised to the fans of the UAE and said he decided to leave the CSK camp suddenly as he was getting concerned about his wife Priyanka and their two young children, four-year-old daughter Gracia and four-month-old son Rio in view of the pandemic situation back home.
“Raina told me that he started missing the family badly, especially the children, from the time he landed in Dubai. Since the CSK team management decided against players travelling with their families in the initial stages of the IPL, they could not accompany him either and even Rio’s passport was not ready,” said Sethi.
Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings will certainly miss the service of their main man. He is their highest run-scorer in the league and is an integral part of the set-up. So far, he has played 193 games in IPL scoring 5368 runs including one century and 38 fifties at an average of over 33. It will be interesting to see if Chennai rope in any Indian cricketer as Raina’s replacement.
