In Thalaiva’s style- MS Dhoni, one of India’s greatest captains announced his retirement on social media platform on Saturday. Soon after, Suresh Raina, adoringly called as Chinna thalaiva’s by his fans, too called time on his international career.
Suresh Raina, in an interview, expressed his feelings on the same and stated that how Dhoni’s retirement was not a surprise as he was aware that the former captain would announce his retirement on Saturday. Raina further stated that how he, too, had made up his mind to announce retirement as soon as his compatriot Dhoni does.
Dhoni’s Retirement
Suresh Raina stated that he knew Dhoni would be announcing his retirement upon reaching Chennai, so he was ready and him, along with Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar, and Karn Sharma reached Ranchi on 14 August with the chartered plane, and picked up Mahi Bhai and Monu Singh.
Raina further stated that after announcing the retirement, they hugged and cried a lot and later discussed careers and relationships and partied during the night.
Why August 15th?
Raina and Dhoni’s choice of retiring on August 15th has to do with their jersey numbers and the years of independence.
Dhoni’s jersey number is 7 whilst Raina’s is 3. Put it together and it makes 73. And on August 15, India completed 73 years of independence, so there couldn’t have been a better day for the duo to retire.
What will be next for them?
Ahead of IPL 2020, few players from CSK contingent have assembled in Chennai for a short preparatory camp. Previously, the CSK team management received the required permission from the Tamil Nadu state government to host a training camp before leaving for UAE. Meanwhile, the CSK contingent will likely fly to UAE on August 22.
Dhoni started his career against Bangladesh in Chittagong in December (2004) whilst Raina made his debut in July (2005) against Sri Lanka. Both of them almost began together in international cricket, remained together at CSK, and have now retired together with eyeing to win trophy for CSK in IPL together.
Dhoni-Raina: The Dhoni-Raina partnership in ODIs
The duo of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina shares a lot in common. Be it winning the 2011 World Cup to retiring on the same day, the duo has seen it all. However, it was their emphatic stands in One-Day Internationals during 2000s which stood out amongst all.
Batting together, Raina and Dhoni shared 3,585 runs from 73 OuDI innings at an incredible average of 56.90.