Suresh Raina should do a 'Shahid Afridi' and come out of retirement: Aakash Chopra
Former India opener Aakash Chopra believes that former India batsman Suresh Raina retired too soon from international cricket and that he still had a lot left in him to maybe try and play for India again.
The 33-year-old announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15 right after MS Dhoni announced that he is hanging up his boots.
Suresh Raina has been one of the best fielders in the world and a utility white-ball player for India over the past 15 years. He was the first Indian batsman to score a century across all three formats and on his day was able to take the game away from the opposition in a flash.
"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," Aakash Chopra said on his youtube channel.
A couple of strong IPL seasons can bring Suresh Raina back in national reackoning: Aakash Chopra
Aakash CHopra understands why MS Dhoni might have retired from international cricket. Dhoni might have had his eye on the 2020 T20 World Cup which was supposed to happen in the October-November window. But the mega event got postponed to 2021 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which might have triggered his retirement decision.
However, according to Chopra, Suresh Raina is too young to call it a day from international cricket and thus he believes that a couple of good IPL seasons can really bring him back in the radar of national selectors for the 2021 T20 World Cup in India.
"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," Aakash Chopra said.
"But Raina had no such problems to be very honest.I would say please do a 'Shahid Afridi' and come out of retirement. I believe that a couple of brilliant IPL 2020 and 2021 seasons can well see Raina in India's T20 World Cup squad," he further added.
Only time will tell whether Suresh Raina will reconsider his retirement decision and whether he would come out of retirement to try and give one final push to get into the Indian team.