IPL 2020 will get underway from September 19 with its final being played on November 10. The lucrative tournament will be played for the second time in UAE. However, the fixtures are still to be confirmed, but it looks like Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will face off against Mumbai Indians in the inaugural contest.
"We Hugged And Cried A Lot": Suresh Raina And MS Dhoni After Announcing Retirement
By Samrat Singh
Updated - 17 Aug 2020, 02:16 PM
On Independence Day, Indian fans were greeted with a major shock when former India captain MS Dhoni announced his retirement at 1929hrs via an Instagram post. It was a major shock to deal with before middle-order batsman Suresh Raina added to it by deciding to retire as well.
Raina said that the decision to retire was a pre-planned one as their India jersey together forms 73. He also said that there could not be a better day to retire than Independence Day as India completed 73 years.
“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 (now Chattogram), while I made my debut on 30 July, 2005 against Sri Lanka in 2005. 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 also added that he knew that he will announcing his decision on retirement, further adding that we both “hugged and cried a lot” after announcing their retirements, and partied with fellow CSK teammates for the night.
“I knew Dhoni would announce his retirement upon reaching Chennai, so I was ready. I, Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar and Karn Sharma reached Ranchi on 14th with the chartered plane, and picked up Mahi bhai and Monu Singh,” said the southpaw.
“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.” added Suresh Raina.
Raina, however, will continue to ply his trade for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise in the IPL. MS Dhoni might also continue for a few years as it is still not known when will he call time on his IPL career.
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CSK MS Dhoni Suresh Raina
