Like other cricket fans — Aakash Chopra, the renowned commentator, and former Indian cricketer, also could not digest the reason behind Suresh Raina’s retirement. On Saturday (15 August) evening, Raina bid adieu to international cricket soon after MS Dhoni shared the post on Instagram to officially announce his retirement. The two megastars announced retirement on one day had shocked everyone.
In the latest video on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra has closely analyzed Suresh Raina’s career as to what led to retire him so early though the southpaw was planning for a comeback.
The 33-year-old Raina had several times in the Instagram live sessions during the coronavirus hiatus had opined that he was eager to again play for India. He had shown his desire to make a comeback in the national team. Thus, his sudden retirement announcement has astonished Chopra.
“This was actually a bolt from the blue. And there are 2-3 reasons for that. Firstly, Raina is only 33 years old, so he is fairly young,” Chopra said in the latest video uploaded on his Youtube channel.
“Second thing is that we had interviewed with Suresh Raina recently in which he regularly said that he was looking forward to playing for India again. He said that he was doing his best and would be scoring a lot of runs. He said that after his knee surgery he was feeling stronger and hitting the ball well,” the former India batsman said.
Aakash Chopra was expecting Suresh Raina to play in T20 World Cup:
Aakash Chopra added that he was delighted to see Raina preparing himself to get back his spot in the Indian team. He was looking forward to seeing Chennai Super Kings (CSK) player score heavily in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) edition and forcing the selectors to pick him up for the scheduled T20 World Cups. But he didn’t expect to never see the player again in the blue jersey.
“I was very happy because Raina is a special player and two T20 World Cups were coming in two years, so why not Raina. Thirty-three is no age for a guy as fit as Suresh Raina.
“And then he was posting videos on Instagram etc where he was regularly practicing and putting a lot of effort. When you see someone putting so much effort, you feel that it is going to happen. In fact, the only thing I was looking forward to was him playing for CSK and scoring a lot of runs and forcing the selectors to pick him,” Chopra further explained.
Further, Aakash Chopra heaped praise on Suresh Raina’s batting and contribution. He said that Raina was the best left-hander India had produced so far. The cricketer-turned-YouTuber labelled the Raina as the match-winner and a champion player.
“If you see the left-handers that India has produced to date, Suresh Raina’s name would be right up there. He was one of the finest left-handed batsmen that the country has produced, one of the best white-ball cricketers that the world has ever seen. If you include his IPL figures as well, then you will say a runaway match-winner and absolutely a champion player,” he added.
Raina deserved better: Chopra
Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra found the fault in team management for handling Raina because of which he failed to get more chances when he earlier made a comeback. He said that Suresh Raina deserved better.
“Raina deserved better. I think Raina could have been handled a lot better. Because when he made a comeback also, in one of the three matches he scored 40-50 I think and in one match he remained not out and was dismissed early in the other match. But he did not get a chance after that,” Aakash Chopra signed off.
Suresh Raina is the first Indian to score a century across all the formats. He was the part of India’s victory in the T20 World Cup 2007 and World Cup 2011 and played a significant role in both the triumphs.