Suresh Raina has revealed he was aware of the fact that MS Dhoni, his long-time friend and India teammate, would announce his retirement upon landing in Chennai. Raina and Dhoni, along with Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar and Karn Sharma landed in Chennai on August 14, and a day later, the former India captain informed the world of his retirement through a post on Instagram.
Raina, who followed Dhoni into retirement just moments later, shed light on the emotional night that was August 15, 2020. "I knew Dhoni would announce his retirement upon reaching Chennai, so I was ready," Raina told Dainik Jagran. "I, Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar and Karn Sharma reached Ranchi on 14 August with the chartered plane, and picked up Mahi bhai and Monu Singh.
"After announcing our retirement, we hugged and cried a lot. I, Piyush, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav and Karn sat together after that, talked about our careers and our relationship. We partied during the night."
Raina made his retirement official when he conveyed the same on his social media on Sunday and later the BCCI. That said, Raina informed that the decision to retire was not instinct and instead pre-planned.
"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."
Two roads converged on a #yellove wood... #Thala #ChinnaThala #73Forever 🦁🦁 pic.twitter.com/0BDe99kp0z
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) August 16, 2020
Chennai Super Kings' Twitter handle had posted a video from the evening when the players made their announcement and an emotional Raina can be seen giving MS Dhoni a hug before they walk together towards the team bus after the practise session.
Dhoni is the only captain in the world to have won all the three ICC trophies. He led India to World T20 in 2007, 50-over World Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013. He has won the most number of finals as a captain. He has led the Indian team six times in a final and has clinched the victory in four of them.
Dhoni is now the only player to have fininshed his career with an average of 50 and 10000 runs ODI runs. He is infact ahead of Sachin Tendulkar in this list.
India's present captain Virat Kohli is at the helm in the list of batsmen with more than 10000 runs and have average of 50.
