The conclusion of the two-day mega auction in Bangalore over last weekend marked the beginning of a new era in Indian as well as Indian T20 League cricket, with 11 players earning contracts that exceeded ₹10 crores, which included 8 Indians. The auction witnessed a total of 204 players being bought by 10 franchises ahead of the Indian T20 League 2022, with a total amount of ₹551.70 crores spent.
All these are indeed signs of progress and growth of the world's biggest and most competitive T20 cricket tournament. But it also comes with some sad news. Several top-notch players were ignored by the Indian T20 owners who came up with their fair share of surprises and choices, with some of the biggest names in the format as well as from the international circuit were not considered worthy enough to be a part of the tournament anymore.
With the auction ending on Sunday night, several fans took to social media to pay tribute to a complete team-man in Raina, who has left a strong impression in the minds of fans and critics alike.
The biggest name, unarguably, has to be of former India and now ex-Chennai player Suresh Raina. The Chepauk showered the Indian all-rounder with unprecedented love and affection all these years, and fondly named Raina with the term 'Chinna Thala'.
The love affair was not one-sided – Raina remained a Chennai devotee all the years, serving the team and its passionately-mad fan base with record performances. For several years, Raina remained in a healthy competition with the best batsman of the era, Virat Kohli, as the tournament's leading run-scorer. In fact, Raina is one among the six special players who have crossed the 5,000-run mark in the Indian T20 League.
With Raina's sensational journey in the Indian T20 League coming to an expected end, he finished with a record 5,528 runs in 205 matches, averaging 32.51 with 1 century and 39 half-centuries. These are the best numbers that any batsman has garnered for Chennai over the last 14 years. While Raina remained a Chennai player for the majority of his Indian T20 career, he also played and captained Gujarat in the years 2016 and 2017 when his Chennai were banned for two years.
Indeed, Raina was a special player that Chennai will miss going forward and 'Chinna Thala' will always be fondly remembered as a legendary player for both the franchise and the tournament.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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