Former Indian batter Suresh Raina announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Tuesday. Raina, who had hung his boots from international cricket in August 2020, alongside legendary skipper MS Dhoni continued to play domestic cricket for Uttar Pradesh and in the Indian Premier League for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
However, Raina’s last appearance for CSK came in the cash-rich league in 2021 as he was released by the four-time champions ahead of 2022 mega auction. The 35-year-old didn’t find any takers at the mega auction and had joined the host broadcaster Star Sports’ commentary panel for the 2022 edition.\
Raina hasn’t played a competitive game since the IPL 2021 match against the Rajasthan Royals and as per Dainik Jagran, the veteran southpaw wishes to play for 2-3 more years and will look to ply his trade in the T20 leagues around the world, in particular in the UAE and South Africa.
Announcing his decision of moving on, Raina took to Twitter and thanked BCCI, UPCA and CSK in addition to his fans for their undying support. “It has been an absolute honour to represent my country & state UP. I would like to announce my retirement from all formats of Cricket. I would like to thank @BCCI, @UPCACricket, @ChennaiIPL, @ShuklaRajiv sir & all my fans for their support and unwavering faith in my abilities,” Raina wrote.
Raina started his international career with an ODI in 2005 and last represented India in the same format in 2018 against England. Raina, who is one of the very few players to have played 200-plus IPL games apart from the likes of Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik was the leading run-scorer in the tournament for a number of years before the former RCB skipper surpassed him.
In 205 matches he played in the IPL for CSK and the now-defunct Gujarat Lions, Raina amassed 5528 runs and is currently the 5th leading run-getter in the tournament, going with his 8078 runs in 302 List-A games and 6871 runs in 109 First-class matches. Raina brought an end to an illustrious career.
