“Absolutely thrilled for my brother”: Suresh Raina confident of Ravindra Jadeja living up to expectations of replacing MS Dhoni as CSK captain

Suresh Raina confident of Ravindra Jadeja: The legendary Indian Premier League batter has wished well to his former teammate.

Former India and Chennai Super Kings batter Suresh Raina is “absolutely thrilled” for his “brother” Ravindra Jadeja after the latter has been promoted as the captain of the franchise ahead of the 15th season of the IPL.

Jadeja has replaced former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to become only the third captain at CSK. Having played 132 IPL matches (third-highest for CSK) across eight seasons for the franchise, Jadeja was retained as their first-choice player ahead of Dhoni before IPL 2022 mega auction.

In 92 batting innings for Chennai, Jadeja has scored 1,324 runs at an average and strike rate of 27.58 and 135.79 respectively including a couple of half-centuries. In 119 bowling innings, Jadeja’s 100 wickets have come at an average of 26.79, an economy rate of 7.54 and a strike rate of 21.33.

Suresh Raina confident of Ravindra Jadeja living up to expectations of replacing MS Dhoni as CSK captain

As far as Raina and Jadeja are concerned, the pair has played seven seasons of the Indian Premier League for Super Kings and two for Gujarat Lions (with Raina as captain) together. Apart from the IPL, one can’t ignore Raina and Jadeja’s association where they’ve been in the same Playing XI for 149 white-ball matches at the highest level.

Not mincing his words, Raina mentioned that no one better than Jadeja could’ve taken over Chennai’s reigns from Dhoni – a captain under whom both of them flourished both for India and CSK.

Most matches for CSK

Players	Matches	Span
MS Dhoni	190	2008-present
Suresh Raina	176	2008-2021
Ravindra Jadeja	132	2012-present
Dwayne Bravo	106	2011-present
R Ashwin	97	2009-2015