Cricket fans around the world were left is disbelief on August 15, 2020 as former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his international retirement. The wicketkeeper-batter, who made his international debut in 2004, led Team India to three major ICC trophies like 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy. As the fans were trying to cope with the shock of Dhoni's sudden retirement, they were bombarded with the news of Suresh Raina's decision to call it quits as well. The former India batter, who had shared space with Dhoni, not only in the Indian camp but also for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, called time on his international career just 30 minutes after Dhoni hung his boots.

Raina was 32 years old when he announced his retirement and had played his last game for India in an ODI against England in 2018. Recently in an interview, Raina explained his retirement decision, which came immediately after Dhoni's.

“We played so many matches together. I was fortunate to play with him for India, and with CSK. We got a lot of love. I've come from Ghaziabad, Dhoni from Ranchi. I played for MS Dhoni, then I played for the country. That's the connection. We've played so many finals, we won the World Cup. He's a great leader and a great human being,” said Raina on Sports Tak.

Raina was a crucial part of the team that won the 2011 ODI World Cup in India, and has scored 5,615 runs from 226 games in the 50-over format and 1,605 runs in the T20I format while donning the national colours.

Apart from this, Raina has scored 5,528 runs in the IPL and played for the Chennai Super Kings, has also captained the Gujarat Lions in 2016-2017, scoring plenty of runs for them too. Raina, who is known as 'Mr IPL', has scored the most runs as a batter for the CSK franchise in the history of the tournament.

He played his last match in IPL 2021 as he went unsold in the IPL 2022 mega auctions, after which he took retirement from the T20 league as well.

(With ANI Inputs)