Former India captain MS Dhoni shocked the cricketing universe by announcing his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020. He was expected to call it a day after the 2019 Word Cup but since he delayed the announcement, many expected that he might be available for the T20 World Cup 2021.
But that didn’t happen and Dhoni retired a month before the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. Dhoni was joined by Suresh Raina in his retirement journey. Raina had also landed in the CSK camp and the duo made the mega announcements on the same day.
While the fans probably think that their decision to quit international cricket was an impromptu one, it isn’t the case. Speaking to Dainik Jagran after retirement, Raina had revealed why they (he and Dhoni) chose to retire on August 15.
“We had already made up our minds to retire on Saturday (August 15). Dhoni’s jersey number is 7 and mine 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,” Raina said.
“Dhoni began his career on 23 December (2004) against Bangladesh in Chittagong, while I made my debut on 30 July (2005) against Sri Lanka. Both of us almost began together in international cricket, remained together at CSK, and so we now retired together and will continue to play in IPL together.”
Raina, who also got opportunities to lead Team India in Dhoni’s absence, quit the highest level of the game with 768 runs in 18 Tests, 5615 runs in 226 ODIs and 1605 runs in 78 T20Is. India’s first-ever all-format centurion, Raina is also one of the few players to score a century on Test debut.
On the other hand, Dhoni retired from the highest level with 4876 runs in 90 Tests, 10773 runs in 350 ODIs and 1617 runs in 98 T20Is. One of the most successful captains in the history of the game, Dhoni led the Men in Blue to 2007 T20 and 2011 World Cup wins. He also captained the Test team to the number 1 position for the first time. A future ICC Hall of Famer, Dhoni is expected to take a call on his professional career after IPL 2021.
