Just days before the commencement of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the three-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) received a huge blow as 13 members of its contingent including two players namely Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaekwad tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Adding to the misery, the vice-captain of the franchise Suresh Raina decided to pull away from this edition of the cash-rich league due to some personal reasons. Raina has already returned to India and has made himself unavailable for the entire season.

While there has been no official confirmation regarding the exact reason of Raina’s exit from the league, a report suggests that the swashbuckling batsman got worried about the health of his kids after more than a dozen of CSK’s members tested positive. He could not mentally prepare himself for taking part in the league and hence decided to return back with his family to India.

Shane Watson’s heartwarming video for Suresh Raina

Amidst all this, CSK’s opening batsman Shane Watson shared an adorable post on his official Instagram handle where he talks about Suresh Raina’s exit from the tournament. In the two-minute emotional video, Shane reveals that the team will dearly miss Raina and wished him good health.

“I woke up this morning to a really sad news that Suresh Raina is heading back to India for personal reasons. My heart goes out to you Suresh, I hope you are going okay mate. You are gonna be surely missed at CSK,” Watson said in the video.

He captioned the video as, “Thinking of you Suresh @sureshraina – you and your family are in my thoughts. You will be dearly missed here @chennaiipl. You have always been the heartbeat of the team so we will be doing everything we can to make you proud. Take care mate and stay safe.”

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@sureshraina3 – you and your family are in my thoughts. You will be dearly missed here @chennaiipl. You have always been the heartbeat of the team so we will be doing everything we can to make you proud. Take care mate and stay safe.

A post shared by Shane Watson (@srwatson33) on Aug 29, 2020 at 3:02am PDT

Suresh Raina is an integral part of the Yellow Army and the fans were eager to see Mr. IPL after a sabbatical of one and half year from cricket. This would have been the first time the cricketer would have braced the field after announcing his retirement from international cricket along with MS Dhoni on August 15. Raina is not only CSK’s most successful batsman, but is also only behind Virat Kohli in terms of the highest run-getter in the Indian league.