Former Indian batter Suresh Raina decided to announce his retirement from all formats of the game on August 15, 2020, following MS Dhoni’s footsteps after the former skipper also decided to call time on his career. 

Raina retired after playing 18 Tests, 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is for India, in which he scored 768, 5615 and 1605 runs respectively. The part-time off-spinner also scalped 36 ODI wickets and took 13 wickets each in Test and T20I formats.

Raina last played for the Indian team back on India’s tour of England in 2018. The former left-hander said he had passed the Yo-Yo Test and had also performed consistently in the domestic circuit but didn’t get his chances.

“See, every captain has his own team. He obviously feels someone else is better. Yuvraj Singh and I failed the Yo-Yo test, but we cleared it. We played a lot of domestic too. Scored a lot of runs. I did speak to Anil bhai (then the coach), and he told me there were certain things I needed to do. I was named Player of the Tournament in South Africa in T20Is. But in the 2019 World Cup, a different batter was preferred for England. A different keeper went there too. Back then, I felt that I could have done better,” said Raina on Aakash Chopra’s YouTube channel.

Raina revealed there was a lack of communication from the selectors, which didn’t help him.

“Players expect respect. The communication could have been better, such as what are the selectors thinking? What message is being given to them by them? But that’s not in our control. I asked plenty of questions, but didn’t get any answers. I spoke to both the captain and the coaches. But they did what they felt was right,” said Raina.

Raina made his International debut against Sri Lanka when he was only 19 years old.