Suresh Raina seemingly leaked his return to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as their batting coach for the IPL 2026 season. The CSK veteran was doing commentary during the CSK-Gujarat Titans (GT) fixture when he hinted at making his return to the Yellow Army. Raina, the former CSK vice-captain, said that the new coach has the fastest IPL fifty.

Raina does hold the record for scoring the fastest IPL fifty for CSK in IPL. He breached the 50-run mark off just 14 balls against Punjab Kings in the second qualifier of IPL 2014. CSK lost the match by 24 runs.

Raina has only hinted at his return and there is nothing official yet. Michael Hussey is the present batting coach of CSK. He returned to CSK as their batting coach in 2018 and has been retaining his position. Stephen Fleming, who has been CSK's head coach since 2009, also continues to be with the team.

Suresh Raina joined CSK in the IPL 2008 mega-auction and played a key role in their success. Raina missed his first-ever game for CSK 10 years after his debut for them. He missed an IPL 2018 game due to an injury.

Raina was Dhoni's deputy for a long time and also led the team in his absence. He got dropped during IPL 2021 and went unsold in the IPL 2022 mega-auction. Raina did commentary in the season and retired from Indian cricket later in the year.

Raina scored 4687 runs for CSK in 176 IPL matches. His tally includes 1 century and 33 half-centuries. He led CSK to 1 win from 5 matches in IPL. Since Raina has played T20 leagues other than IPL, he cannot play for CSK again even if he decides to make his on-field return.

Raina captained Gujarat Lions in IPL 2016 and 2017. He was among the players CSK re-signed before the IPL 2018 mega-auction upon their return to IPL.