Suresh Raina and Faf du Plessis© BCCI/Sportzpics
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) haven’t been up to their best in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, winning just one game in 7 matches so far. Be it the performances of some youngsters in the team or their veterans, RCB have barely found things they could be proud of. In fact, the franchise’s captain Faf du Plessis has often singled out players who cost the team the match. But, such comments weren’t welcomed by his former Chennai Super Kings teammate Suresh Raina. (IPL 2024 Points Table)
After RCB’s loss in the match against the Rajasthan Royals, Du Plessis highlighted the 20-run over by Mayank Dagar as the game-changer. “The pitch definitely got better; you could feel it; the ball was skidding along nicely. We were excellent in the first four overs. I think that 20 runs over (from Dagar) took the momentum away and shifted the pressure back on us.”
Raina, in an interview with Lallantop, slammed Du Plessis for throwing his teammate under the bus. He even asserted that someone like Rohit Sharma would never make such a comment about his teammate.
“If you speak something like this about a junior in front of the press, it’s not right. The captain himself hasn’t been scoring runs. I’ve played with Faf for many years and he’s a dear friend, but he should support the youngsters. You’d never see Rohit Sharma say something like this.”
During the chat, Raina also opened up about his plans to open an academy in J&K.
“I wanted to open my first academy in Jammu and Kashmir because I know that there are many talented kids there. A lot of talent has come from there in domestic cricket, international cricket, and in the IPL. They are very passionate. The kids have bat and ball on the right side and AK47 on the left side. The easy option for them was the left one; there have been stone-throwing incidents as well. However, I wanted them to choose bat and ball,” said Raina.
Topics mentioned in this article
