Former India cricketer Suresh Raina has pulled out of the upcoming Indian Premier League season citing personal reasons and has returned to India from the United Arab Emirates where the tournament is set to be held.

The franchise conveyed the development through a statement issued on their Twitter handle on Saturday.

“Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of the IPL season. Chennai Super Kings offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time,” CSK CEO KS Viswanathan was quoted as saying.

Raina has been a stalwart for CSK. In his IPL career, he has scored 5368 runs at the average of 33.34 and is only behind Virat Kohli in the all-time run-scorers in the IPL.

Raina had recently announced his retirement from international cricket.

The 13th edition of the IPL will begin from UAE from September 19.

Later in the day, PTI reported that an uncle of Raina died while four members of his family sustained injuries allegedly in an attack by robbers in Punjab’s Pathankot district.

The deceased was identified as 58-year-old Ashok Kumar, a government contractor. According to police, the incident took place at Thariyal village in Punjab’s Pathankot on the night intervening August 19 and 20.

Kumar’s elder brother Shyam Lal confirmed that the victim was the cricketer’s uncle. He said Raina is expected to visit the village, according to the report.

There has not been an official communication from Suresh Raina or the franchise about the reason for his departure from UAE.

(With PTI inputs)