MS Dhoni retires from international cricket, Suresh Raina 'joins' him in the journey

Tags: India, Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Published on: Aug 16, 2020

The speculation over MS Dhoni's future has finally come to an end. The former Indian captain announced his retirement from international cricket with an emotional video featuring a collage of his up and down moments in international cricket with the legendary song 'Main Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar' playing in the background.

Just a few minutes later, Dhoni's long-time India and Chennai Super Kings teammate Suresh Raina also called it quits from international cricket. Dhoni's instagram video was accompanied with the caption “Thanks. Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. From 1929 hrs consider me as Retired.”

To it, Raina added on his Instagram, “It was nothing but lovely playing with you, @mahi7781 . With my heart full of pride, I choose to join you in this journey. Thank you India. Jai Hind! (sic)." Both Dhoni and Raina announced their retirements on India's Independence Day. While Dhoni last played for India in the 2019 World Cup semi-final, Raina's last game in India colours was the Leeds ODI against England in 2018.

Dhoni retires as India's most successful captain having led the team to triumph in all three ICC trophies -- 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy, the only captain in world cricket to achieve the feat. He went on to guide India to the final of the 2014 T20 World Cup and the semis of the 2015 World Cup and 2016 T20 World Cup. This was after he had retired from Test cricket in 2014.

With 10,733 runs in 350 ODI matches, Dhoni finishes fifth on the list of India’s all-time run-scorers in the format, behind Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. He was the man of the match as India lifted the World Cup at home in 2011 with a nerveless 91 not out in the final.

Under Dhoni, India also won the CB series in Australia in 2008 and also achieved the number one ranking in Test. However, India were also blanked 0-4 in the Test series' in England and Australia in 2011-12. That marked the beginning of the down phase for Dhoni as Test captain, from which he never recovered.

On his other hand, Raina, only 33, featured in 18 Tests, 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is for India apart from 193 IPL games. He made his ODI debut in July 2005 against Sri Lanka at the age of 19. The southpaw finishes with 768 Test runs, 5615 in ODIs and 1605 in T20Is. Raina was, in fact, the first Indian to hit a hundred in all three formats of the game, and is the second highest run-scorer in the IPL

Both Dhoni and Raina would feature in the 13th edition of the IPL, which will be held in the UAE.

--By A Cricket Correspondent

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