Looking to make a comeback in the Indian team, Suresh Raina has been named as the vice-captain of franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). The famous 'yellow outfit' is making a return after a two-year hiatus along with Rajasthan Royals (RR). During the Player Retention event in Mumbai last week, CSK retained their icon player MS Dhoni, hard-hitter Suresh Raina and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
The retention of their star trio sent CSK fans into a frenzy, the official Twitter handle of the franchise also posted the videos of the players signing the contract papers.
Dhoni has led the Chennai-based franchise to two IPL trophies and ended the league as the runners-up four times. Whereas, Raina has earlier captained now dysfunctional Gujarat Lions in the past two seasons of the cash-rich league. CSK and RR were banned from the famous domestic league due to betting charges and illegal match practices.
In an exclusive interview with India Today, Raina revealed about the team's plan for the upcoming edition of IPL. He said: "MS Dhoni is going to be the captain, I'm going to be the vice-captain, Jadeja is also going to be there. Then there are certain players in the auction. We all will be having a meeting soon and then decide what planning we will be having for the auction."
The IPL 2018 player auction will be taking place on January 27-28 in Bengaluru. Both Dhoni and Raina along with the team management are likely to make important decisions and will look to big aggressively to make some quality signings in the auction.
"I have already got the sheet, I'll have a go through it, MS will also go through it. It's important to have few important quality Indian players," Raina added.
Currently, the 31-year-old batsman is busy in honing his skills in the domestic circuit, he is confident that after auction CSK will have the best team.
"This year you will have the best team in CSK, I have a feeling. Because two years I have played for Gujarat, he (Dhoni) played in Pune and played a lot of matches for India also and then I've been playing a lot of domestic games...I've seen a lot of talent," Raina signed off.
