'Suresh Raina, you are the heartbeat of CSK': Shane Watson's heartwarming message for Chinna Thala missing IPL 2020

Suresh Raina, who had recently announced his retirement from international cricket along with MS Dhoni, had to pull out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 on Saturday.

The 'Chinna Thala' left the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) camp in the UAE to travel back to India due to personal reasons.

In a statement released by the franchise CEO Kasi Viswanathan, it read, “Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of the IPL season. Chennai Super Kings offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time.” 

With an important member missing the camp, CSK star all-rounder Shane Watson, in a recent video uploaded on his official Instagram page, shared a special message for Raina.

“Hello everyone, I wake up this morning with a very bad news that Suresh Raina is heading back to India for personal reasons. My heart goes to you. I hope you are doing okay, mate,” Watson said.

“You are going to be sorely missed from CSK. You have been with the CSK from the start, you are the heartbeat of the team. You are also going to be missed by IPL tournament as well. You are such a star of IPL. But, most importantly, is your well-being and hope you are going okay,” the right-handed batsman added.

 

 

 

 

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Aug 29, 2020 at 3:02am PDT

With Raina's absence, the team could suffer more as the number of positive cases of COVID-19 that have been confirmed at the CSK camp, has derailed the franchise’s return to training camp.

Speaking on the same, Watson said: “It’s been an interesting time to be in lockdown for another seven days, but this is the ever-changing world that we live in. We all have to do what we possibly can to stay safe, to limit the spread of COVID-19 throughout the IPL tournament because it is the best T20 tournament in the world.

“All players, all fans, want it to go ahead. I’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure that IPL goes ahead,” the former Australia batsman added.

As for the 13th edition of IPL, it will kick off from September 19th with the final to be played on November 10th.