Former Chennai Super Kings batter Suresh Raina has picked his best-ever CSK team after IPL 2026. Raina reckons the 2018 CSK team was the best as they were making a comeback after a two-year ban.

CSK went on to win the title in the 2018 edition of the tournament after they came up with a collective effort. Raina said there was a lot of unity in the team, and they were determined to deliver the goods after the ban.

“I think the 2018 one. We were banned for two years, but in 2018, there was a different unity and mindset in that team. A lot of us were fathers, all our wives were there. I enjoyed that season as a player, as a father, as a husband. We dominated that year. Our top five were scoring 400-500 runs, be it Watson, Faf, Rayudu, myself, Dhoni. We had a fearless approach,” he said in a podcast with Aakash Chopra.

Raina scored 445 runs in 15 matches of IPL 2018 at an average of 37.08 and a strike rate of 132.44, and thus played a key role in taking his team to glory.

On the other hand, Raina picked the inaugural edition of IPL 2008 as his best-ever season in the tournament. The left-hander said head coach Kepler Wessels got the best out of the team by giving them all the freedom to express themselves.

“I feel the very first season in 2008. We did not know anything about anyone. We had never played franchise cricket before, and for two months. I also remember that during a meeting, Kepler said If we are 40/1 now, go harder in six overs. He wanted us to go hard and score runs. The mindset changed from there. After we understood the game that season, then we started enjoying it.”

Raina scored 421 runs in 14 innings of IPL 2008 for CSK at an average of 38.27 and a strike rate of 142.71.