An era ended in Indian cricket when MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina announced their retirements from international cricket on August 15, 2020. The Indian legends were in Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) bio-bubble before IPL 2020 when they made the shocking announcement.
Dhoni shared an Instagram post at 7:29 PM IST to announce his retirement. A few minutes later, Raina joined him on his retirement journey and quit international cricket. Dhoni played his last game for India in the 2019 World Cup while Raina last played international match in 2018.
During an interview following his retirement, Raina talked about him and Dhoni retiring on the same day and revealed that it was a planned retirement. “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 told Dainik Jagran.
“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,” he added.
Dhoni is still active in Indian cricket and he continues to play for Chennai Super Kings in IPL. After skipping IPL 2020, Raina returned to the league in 2021. He went unsold in the IPL 2022 mega-auction and retired from Indian cricket later that year. He now works as a part-time cricket commentator.
MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina’s career numbers
Dhoni played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20Is from 2004 to 2019. He captained a rookie team to a title win in the 2007 T20 World Cup. In 2011, Dhoni-led India clinched the ODI World Cup after 28 years. Dhoni created history and became the first captain to win all three white-ball ICC trophies after India won the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Raina played 18 Tests, 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is from 2005 to 2018. He assisted Dhoni for a long time. Raina was one of the best Indian fielders during his playing days.