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IPL without Mr IPL would have been not such an exciting affair, but reportedly Suresh Raina is all set to return to the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League as a commentator. As per Dainik Jagran, Disney Star's head of sports Sanjay Gupta confirmed the news on Tuesday and stated that Raina would be part of the Hindi commentary team alongside the likes of Aakash Chopra, Jatin Sapru, Irfan Pathan and others.
Apart from Suresh Raina, India's former head coach Ravi Shastri will also be returning to the commentary panel in IPL 2022. Shastri's return is undoubtedly going to be a massive boost for the commentary team as the cricket fraternity regards him as one of the best commentators in the world of cricket. While Shastri's return as a commentator was widely requested, Raina providing his services to the IPL from the panel box is quite unprecedented. Raina, who signed for the auction at the base price of Rs. 2 crores, went unsold as none of the franchises showed keen interest in buying him for the cash-rich tournament.
While the CSK franchise was facing a lot of flak for ignoring Raina in IPL auctions, CSK CEO KS Vishwanathan recently stated, "Considering the current form, he did not fit into the side." Raina has amassed 5,528 runs from 205 matches with one century and 39 fifties. Raina's name was widely speculated as the replacement of Jason Roy after the latter pulled himself out of season citing mental fatigue, but the Gujarat franchise clarified that Raina's name was not even taken into consideration.