Do a Shahid Afridi and come out of retirement: Former India opener Aakash Chopra tells Suresh Raina

Drawing Shahid Afridi’s example, former India opener Aakash Chopra asked Suresh Raina to reconsider his decision to retire from international cricket. Raina had decided to call time on his international career on India’s 74th Independence Day, minutes after legendary cricketer MS Dhoni had decided to hang his boots.

Reacting to the retirement of two of India’s finest white-ball cricketers in the modern era, Chopra said he would request Raina to ‘do a Shahid Afridi’ and come out of retirement.

“I would say please do a Shahid Afridi and come out of retirement. I believe that a couple of brilliant IPLs, may be in the 2020 and 2021 seasons can well see Raina in India’s T20 World Cup squad. It’s possible, I sure believe it’s possible,” said Aakash Chopra on his YouTube channel.

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The former India opener said Raina, who announced his retirement only at the age of 33, could have played a lot more as he had recovered well from his injuries and was looking sharper and fitter like before.

“Of course, Suresh Raina could have played a lot more, he had no need to retire. Now he is 33 years old and yes there were some injury issues but which player does not have injury issues? And now after surgery he was fitter, stronger and better and in my thinking he was itching to be back on the field,” Chopra mentioned.

Chopra said Dhoni’s announcement was kind of understandable considering the postponement of T20 World Cup but that was not the case with Raina. He still had a lot of time to make a comeback into the Indian side.

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“You can understand Dhoni’s case as if the IPL has taken place in April-May, the T20 World Cup would have taken place in October-November and maybe Dhoni would have been available for it. But maybe its postponement is the main reason why Dhoni retired. But Raina had no such problems to be very honest,” Chopra added.

Both Dhoni and Raina announced their decisions to retire via Instagarm posts. Raina and Dhoni may not be seen in India colours again but fans will be able to catch them in action in IPL 2020, when they turn up to play for Chennai Super Kings.

IPL 2020 is set to begin from September 19, and the final of the tournament will be played on November 10.

CSK’s India players including Dhoni and Raina landed in Dubai on Friday. They will begin training after spending six days in quarantine.