After being unsold at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions 2022 last month in Bengaluru, former India batter Suresh Raina has suddenly started trending on Twitter as he is speculated to replace Jason Roy for Gujarat Titans in the league that starts on March 26. (More Cricket News)
Roy was bought by Gujarat Titans at the IPL auctions 2022 for his base price of Rs 2 crores but the Englishman decided to pull out of the tournament citing a long stay in bio-bubble. Suresh Raina, who had a base price of Rs 2 crore, was released by Chennai Super Kings ahead of the auctions.
Everyone thought the four-time IPL champions would bid for the southpaw but to everyone’s surprise, the Yellow Army did not even bid for one of their most consistent players for the last 12 years.
However, according to sources close to Gujarat Lions, a replacement for Roy will be announced soon. “The team management has definitely shortlisted some names to replace Jason Roy. The announcement will be made soon,” the source said.
Interestingly, both Roy and Raina played together in the 2017 edition of IPL for now-defunct Gujarat Lions. Raina was the skipper of Gujarat Lions when Chennai Super Kings were banned from taking part in the IPL in 2016 and 2017 on corruption charges.
Raina was also the highest run-getter for Gujarat Lions in IPL 2017 with 442 runs from 14 games. He was also the fifth-highest run-scorer in the league that year. In IPL 2021, Raina played 12 games scoring just 160 runs.
The 35-year-old Raina is among the six players to score over 5000 runs in the IPL. With 5528 runs from 205 matches, Raina currently sits fourth in the list of highest run-getters from the league.
This is not the first time Roy had opted out of the IPL. In 2020, Roy was bought by Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) but opted out due to personal reasons.
Since making his IPL debut in 2017 for the erstwhile Gujarat Lions, Roy has played only 13 games in the competition scoring 329 runs at an average of 29.91. Roy was also in fine form at the just-concluded Pakistan Super League 2022, where he top-scored for Quetta Gladiators with 303 runs.
