Want Suresh Raina to do an Afridi and come out of retirement, wishes Aakash Chopra

Suresh Raina, who is often sighted as one of the best white-ball cricketers for India, decided to call time on his international career, minutes after legendary cricketer MS Dhoni had decided to hang his boots on India’s 74th Independence Day. Raina was the first Indian batsman to score a century across all three formats, and on his day, could take the game away from the opposition in a flash.

The southpaw had knee surgery last year and was looking in good shape after his recovery. The former India opener said Raina, who announced his retirement only at the age of 33, could have played a lot more as he had recovered well from his injuries and was looking sharper and fitter like before.

Chopra said that Dhoni’s announcement was kind of understandable considering the postponement of T20 World Cup but that was not the case with Raina. The southpaw, Chopra felt, still had a lot of time to make a comeback into the Indian side.

“You can understand Dhoni’s case as if the IPL has taken place in April-May, the T20 World Cup would have taken place in October-November and maybe Dhoni would have been available for it. But maybe its postponement is the main reason why Dhoni retired. But Raina had no such problems to be very honest,” Chopra added.

IPL 2020 is set to begin from September 19, and the final of the tournament will be played on November 10. CSK’s India players including Dhoni and Raina landed in Dubai on Friday. They would begin training after spending six days in quarantine.