Why MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina retired on Independence Day

MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina retired: The two former Indian cricketers had hung their boots on the evening of August 15.

Former India batsman Suresh Raina had admitted that he was aware about former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni planning to announce his retirement from international cricket. It is worth mentioning that Raina also hung his boots minutes after Dhoni made the announcement.

Speaking in an interview with Dainik Jagran, Raina talked about reaching Chennai for a pre-IPL season conditioning camp and revealed the immediate post-retirement reactions alongside the likes of other Chennai Super Kings players.

“I knew [MS] Dhoni would announce his retirement upon reaching Chennai, so I was ready. 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 told Dainik Jagran.

Why MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina retired on the same day

Having made their international debut within months from each other, them announcing retirement within minutes speaks highly about the off-field relationship which Raina and Dhoni share.

Apart from just playing hundreds of matches together for both India and Super Kings, Raina and Dhoni have also registered many laudable partnerships between them. Both known for their attacking batting have been part of numerous victories across formats.

To measure their bond with respect to a Bollywood analogy, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Raina was to Dhoni what Circuit was to Munna in Rajkumar Hirani’s super-hit ‘Munna Bhai’ series. Further speaking, Raina also revealed the reason behind them retiring from international cricket on Independence Day, i.e., 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.

“Dhoni’s 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 added.