“BHAI TU NAHI KHELEGA TO MAI BHI NAHI KHELUNGA!!!!”Just when cricket fans were having a hard time accepting that Captain Cool MS Dhoni has retired from International Cricket, like a true wing-man Suresh Raina decided to join his friend in this Journey. After a few minutes of Dhoni’s retirement, Suresh Raina took to Instagram and declared his retirement from International Cricket on 15th August,2020. But both Captain Cool and Suresh Raina will play for domestic cricket, they will be seen playing together for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2020. Suresh Raina also posted a heart-warming video to give his fans a flashback of the Raina Era on the track of Zindagi Kuch to bata.
Raina’s Career
Suresh Raina started playing domestic cricket at the age of 15. When he was 19 years old, he made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in 2005. His test debut was in 2010 against the same team. Since then this left-handed batsman has kept the game going and score-board moving for his country. Here is a statistic of his batting career.
| Format | M | Inn | NO | Runs | HS | Avg | BF | BF | SR | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test2010–15 | 18 | 31 | 2 | 768 | 120 | 26.5 | 1445 | 228 | 53.1 | 1 | 7 |
| ODI2005–18 | 226 | 194 | 35 | 5615 | 116* | 35.3 | 6005 | 107 | 93.5 | 5 | 36 |
| T20I2006–18 | 78 | 66 | 11 | 1605 | 101 | 29.2 | 1190 | 60 | 134.9 | 1 | 5 |
| IPL2008–19 | 193 | 189 | 28 | 5368 | 100* | 33.3 | 3915 | 53 | 137.1 | 1 | 38 |
Achievements
Owing to the team player that he is, Raina has been a part of several great partnerships with his teammates. But, he has also made his own set of records. In International Cricket, he is the first Indian to hit a T20I century (T20 World Cup, 2010, against West Indies) and the third in the world. That was his debut match, so technically he scored a century on his debut in International Test Cricket. He also won the Man of the Match for his excellent performace. In fact, he is the first Indian to score centuries in all the three formats of the game. Interestingly, he is the only Indian to score centuries in bith T20I and ODI World Cup.
When you look at his domestic career, he has a number of records in his name. In 2019, Raina became the first cricket to 100 catches in IPL tournaments, that’s the maximum till date. He is the first cricketer to score 5,000 runs in IPL and the first Indian to hit 100 sixes in IPL.
Who said what?
Raina has indeed made his mark in everyone’s heart. Here’s what the world said as he said Good Bye!
After a tremendous journey which started in 2005, here he is leaving us proud and overwhelmed. That was Jersey number 48, signing off!
