Chennai Super Kings not an ‘aged team’, says Raina

Raina said experience is also an equally important characteristic and cited team's performance in the league, wherein it qualified for playoffs for the record ninth time on Tuesday. “People have been saying that our team is quite aged, but you need experience. 

All credit goes to Dhoni as you can see he is playing freely. In the IPL, he has shown that he can still play very well despite being 35-36,” Raina said on the sidelines of a promotional event.

Currently, CSK has players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Imran Tahir and Harbhajan Singh, who all are over 34 years old. In fact, Tahir is touching 40. In regard to the tournament, wherein the CSK has qualified for the playoffs, Raina said the job is still half done as its main aim is to clinch the IPL trophy again.

"Nobody remembers the runner-up. Everybody looks up to the winner. If we win this time, then the harsh memories of the final that we lost in previous editions of IPL will go away," said Raina.

Out of the eight IPL editions it has played ahead of this year, the yellow brigade has reached finals six times, but only twice it has managed to win the coveted trophy.

Apart from the CSK, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) has also qualified for playoffs.

Besides IPL, Raina has praised Dhoni and Indian skipper Virat Kohli for its performances at international matches.

"Having Dhoni with Virat changes the morale of the Indian cricket team. In South Africa, we won the T20s and ODI series. We even defeated them in one Test match," he said.

Further praising the skipper, the dashing southpaw said under Kohli, the cricket community in Indian has become fearless. "Virat is a player who does not like to lose. In the current scenario, the cricket community in India has become fearless," he said.

Talking about the Indian team's chances in the next year's World Cup in England, he said the men in blue need to build right momentum while playing in the event.