Not Virat or Rohit: Anil Kumble, Raina and Chris Gayle pick 'GOAT' Indian batsman of IPL

Cricketing legends like Anil Kumble, Chris Gayle, Suresh Raina, Scott Styris, Parthiv Patel, and Robin Uthappa recently came together for a fun segment where they decided on the GOATs of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The 2023 edition of the IPL will mark the 15th season of the most successful T20 league in the world. Ahead of the fresh season, the aforementioned former cricketers appeared in a show called the ‘All-time Goats’ on Jio Cinema and named the players who they think are among the GOAT.

All of them collectively decided to name Suresh Raina as the 'GOAT' Indian batsman of the IPL. On being asked to name an Indian player, Anil Kumble pointed at Suresh Raina and explained he would choose Mr. IPL. While the former cricketers also talked about great batters like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, and Shikhar Dhawan but ended up naming Raina as the GOAT, because of his batting exploits for four-time IPL champions.

A look at the incredible stats of Suresh Raina

Raina played in every IPL season from 2008 to 2015 for CSK, before the team suffered a two-year ban. He then led the Gujarat franchise in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, before joining CSK back in 2018. He played 2018, 2019, and 2021 seasons in the yellows, before being let go by the team. 

Raina announced retirement from all forms of cricket in India in 2022, which also meant his time in the IPL was over. He played a total of 205 IPL matches in his career and scored over 5500 runs. He was one of the first India batsmen to cross the 5000-run mark and currently sits fifth in the all-time highest-scorer list in the IPL.

In his international career, Raina scored 5615 runs in 226 ODI games, 1605 runs in 78 T20I games, and 768 runs in 18 Test matches. He scored one Test century, five ODI centuries, and one T20I century in his career and was the first Indian player to achieve the feat of scoring centuries in all formats of the game. He also notched up several wickets playing for the Men In Blue from 2005 to 2018.