Suresh Raina preps up for IPL 2021, Guru Randhawa has special request for him: WATCH

Chennai Super Kings' batting mainstay Suresh Raina has started gearing up for the upcoming 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021). The southpaw who backed out of IPL 2020 due to personal reasons is all set to don the yellow jersey once again as he returns to competitive cricket after a long gap.

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Suresh Raina starts training for IPL 2021

Suresh Raina on Thursday took to Instagram and shared the video of himself practising while batting in an open field. He captioned the video, "Shot Hai Yaar #PracticeModeOn #Ghaziabad." In the video, Raina is seen hitting a crisp cover drive as the ball hits the middle of the bat and makes a delightful sound before racing away towards the boundary.

As soon as Suresh Raina uploaded the post, it was flooded with responses from fans expressing their excitement for Chinna Thala's comeback. Among many comments, one comment was from singer Guru Randhawa who put forth a request to join him for a practice session. Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan also commented on Raina's video as he wrote, "Looking good brother." Here's a look at a few reactions to the post.

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CSK IPL auction analysis

Chennai entered the auction with six vacant slots including a place for one overseas player and a purse of ₹19.90 crores. The three-time IPL champions were involved in a fierce bidding war with Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals to bag Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, however, it was the RCB who managed to get hold of him. Subsequently, CSK filled their only overseas slot by buying England all-rounder Moeen Ali for ₹7 crores.

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Chennai's next pick was former Punjab player Krihsnappa Gowtham who was caught in the auction war between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, it was CSK who entered the fray and roped him in by making a last moment bid. Krishnappa Gowtham had kept his base price at ₹20 lakh. However, he was purchased by CSK for ₹9.25 crore, i.e. more than 46 times his base value. Notably, it also made Gowtham the most expensive uncapped player of all-time. But the MS Dhoni-led franchise surprised everyone by buying India's batting mainstay in the longest format of the game, Cheteshwar Pujara for ₹50 lakh.

CSK squad for IPL 2021

CSK players retained

MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, N. Jagadeesan, Robin Uthappa, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, R. Sai Kishore, Mitchell Santner, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Josh Hazlewood, KM Asif.

CSK players bought at IPL 2021 auction

Moeen Ali (₹7 crore), K Gowtham (₹9.25 crore), Cheteshwar Pujara (₹50 lakh), M Harisankar Reddy (₹20 lakh), K. Bhagath Varma (₹20 lakh), C Hari Nishanth (₹20 lakh).

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