ITL 2022: Surprised to see Suresh Raina going unsold, says Sunil Gavaskar

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has said that he is surprised to see Suresh Raina going unsold after the mega auction. Raina was slotted in the second round of Day One (February 12). Notably, the left-hander wasn’t represented in front of the franchises on the second day in the dying stages even when other unsold were given another opportunity to be picked by teams.

The 2011 World Cup winner played for Chennai last season. He was released by the four-time winners ahead of the player retention last November. Raina had a terrible time with the bat last year as h could muster only 160 runs in 12 games. However, Gavaskar said that he was surprised to see him go unsold given the vast experience the southpaw has in the league.

“For Raina I was definitely surprised. He is left-handed, does off-spin bowling, and is experienced. In the last season, in the Dubai pitches, where there is a lot of bounce, he did look a little scared and this why I feel people must have felt that even in India we will have fast bowlers and so may be he wasn’t picked for that reason. But only the franchises could tell us why they had this feeling about him,” he said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Not surprised to see Amit Mishra going unsold: Sunil Gavaskar

Gavaskar added that he was not surprised to see leg-spinner Amit Mishra going unsold as he hasn’t played any matches last year.

“May be not so much for Amit Mishra because he hardly got to play any matches last year. And it was clearly evident that his bowling did not have that zip. And also there is fielding. Being a good fielder is mandatory nowadays because you need to save those singles as well. So that might be the reason behind Mishra not being picked by a franchise.”