For the 13th season of the Indian Premier League, CSK went to the UAE to prepare and looked to be in full-fledged flow as they had captain MS Dhoni and vice-captain Suresh Raina. But soon came the news that Rain won’t be playing this season.

Shane Watson said on a YouTube show, “We have to (deal with the absence of Raina, Harbhajan). The great thing with CSK, as with all IPL squads, is that they have a lot of depth. It’s going to be incredibly hard to replace Suresh Raina. You can’t. He scored the second-most runs in the IPL, played the most games in IPL history. He has got records left, right and center,”

“He is going to be hugely missed, knowing the conditions in the UAE are hot, more chances of wickets being drier and turning a bit more. Raina plays spin incredibly well as well.”

“No doubt he [Raina] is a big loss but we have got someone like Murali Vijay, who is a gun player. In T20 cricket, he has not got a lot of opportunities in the last few years. But he is a seriously good batsman. He was sitting on the sidelines last year, he might get more opportunities this year,” said Watson.