With the IPL schedule finally in front of our eyes, we can all be assured that the IPL would definitely take place this year. After a lot of delays, postponements and last minute exits; there was no guarantee that IPL would indeed take place this year. However, this year's IPL would probably be a testing one for the Chennai Super Kings, more than ever.
Chennai Super Kings was left in troubled waters after two of its prominent players decided to opt out of the IPL, with barely a fortnight to go. First, it was Suresh Raina who pulled out of the 13th edition of the IPL citing "personal reasons" and then it was Harbhajan Singh who decided to make an exit from this year's IPL. CSK team owner had made several statements about Suresh's exit and had made his anger for him pretty evident. While Suresh never went on to quash or accept the claims made by Srinivasan, he has hinted that he might be back for the IPL.
Raina's family had been attacked by robbers in Pathankot. In the brutal attack, his uncle succumbed to his injuries. Talking about his decision to quit and come back, Raina told ANI, "My bua (aunt) is in a critical situation and is on life support and all this needed to be addressed immediately at the home front so I took this decision of coming back and be with my family. CSK is my family too and Mahi bhai is most important to me and this was a tough decision which I had to take. With the family back home, I had to come back for them."
Reacting to N Srinivasan's statement, Raina said, "He is a father figure to me and he always stood by me and is close to my heart. He treats me like his younger son and I am sure a lot is taken out of context. Yellow is for life." Raina also told Cricbuzz, "I've been training even while quarantining here. You never know you might see me in the camp there again."
On the other hand, West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, revealed that Dhoni is thinking of bringing in the next captain for the CSK. He told ABP news, "I know it's been in the back of his mind for some time, I mean all of us have to step aside at some point of time. It's just the matter of when... when to step aside and hand it over to whether it's a Raina or someone younger."
