Suresh Raina to play in overseas T20 leagues? Chopra says owners 'will spend money on him'

Suresh Raina is one of the best players to have ever played in the Indian Premier League (IPL). After winning the 2021 IPL title with Chennai Super Kings, Raina was released by the franchise ahead of IPL 2022 Mega auction. The southpaw did not find any takers during the IPL 2022 auction as a result of which he was unable to play in the cash-rich T20 cricket. However, commentator Aakash Chopra believes that Suresh Raina could soon find himself playing T20 Cricket in an overseas league.

Aakash Chopra on Suresh Raina playing T20 cricket in Overseas league

Besides the Indian Premier League, Indian businesses are showing interest in overseas T20 leagues. In the latest video uploaded on the Youtube channel, Aakash Chopra feels that more retired Indian cricketers might be seen playing in foreign T20 leagues. He said "When Indian franchises buy all six teams in the CSA T20 league, it becomes a totally Indian league. Indian franchisees are there in the UAE T20 league as well. If it keeps growing like this, franchises might want their players to play in different places. I actually see Suresh Raina play."

The cricketer-turned-commentator further said "I see some of the Indian players playing in these leagues very very soon. Those who are not playing in the IPL, they are all available, but Raina is a very interesting case, a lot of people might want to spend a lot of money on him."

The 44-year-old commentator also spoke about the workload management by BCCI and giving the Indian players sufficient breaks during bilateral series. While speaking about the topic he said, "They want their players to play all the 14-odd matches in the IPL. They are not going to give them rest there for workload management, but when they play against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, they will rest their players. So, the BCCI has already understood this thing. Everybody's workload is being managed."

Cricket news: Suresh Raina's IPL career 

The former Chennai Super Kings star Suresh Raina has scored 5528 runs in 204 matches in the history of IPL. He is 4th on the list of leading run-scorers in the IPL only behind Virat Kohli (6283), Shikhar Dhawan (5784) and Rohit Sharma (5611). The left-hander retired from international cricket in 2020 after which he played IPL 2021 before going unsold for IPL 2022. The former India cricketer played a total of 205 IPL matches from 2008 to 2021 and contributed with a total of 109 catches. He has the record of taking 0.534 catches per innings and had taken the maximum of three catches in a match.