Perhaps one of Chennai Super Kings’ biggest stars, Suresh Raina is back home in India as the IPL team start their campaign against defending champions Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi tonight.
Raina took to twitter to post a message for his CSK team-mates as they get set for the match that starts at 7:30pm IST.
‘Wishing you all the success boys. Unimaginable for me that I’m not there today, but all my wishes are with you. Sending you all the good vibes! Go get it!,’ he wrote in the tweet.
Raina returned home to India one week after landing in Dubai due to ‘personal reasons’ with CSK making the official announcement on their social media channels.
The batsman has since revealed that his family was attacked by robbers earlier in August with his uncle and his cousin since succumbing to their injuries. In a recent tweet, Raina revealed that the attackers had been caught by Punjab police.
MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings finished runners-up in the IPL last season and this year suffered an early setback when 13 members of their travelling party tested positive for coronavirus after landing in Dubai. Most of them have returned two negative tests and rejoined the camp.
Raina is not the only player to pull out of IPL 13 from Dhoni’s team with Harbhajan Singh too announcing he will not be playing this season due to ‘personal reasons’. CSK have not announced replacements for either player, leaving the door open for both Raina and even Harbhajan to play season 13, if they were to choose to do so.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)