Please do a Shahid Afridi: Aakash Chopra jokes while urging Suresh Raina to reconsider retirement

Suresh Raina shocked the cricket fraternity by announcing his international retirement along with MS Dhoni on India’s 74th Independence Day. The 33-year-old decided to call it quits after having not played for India since 2018.

Former India batsman Aakash Chopra joined the chorus on Thursday, urging Suresh Raina to reconsider his decision to retire from international cricket. Chopra jokingly asked Raina to ‘do a Shahid Afridi’ as the Pakistan cricketer is known for making U-turns on retirement decisions.

Suresh Raina, who played 18 Tests, 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is, was in Chennai for a pre-Indian Premier League (IPL) training camp when he made the decision hours after MS Dhoni brought an end to his international career.

Speaking on his YouTube show, #AskAakash, Aakash Chopra said: “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.

“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 it’s postponement is the main reason why Dhoni retired.

“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.”

PM Modi’s letter to Raina

Raina will be featuring for CSK in IPL 2020. The 3-time champions, led by MS Dhoni, will head to the UAE on Friday as they gear up for quarantine period of 6 days before entering the bio-bubble.

Meanwhile, Prime Minster Narendra Modi, in a letter of appreciation for Suresh Raina, also highlighted that the former India batsman is too young and energetic to ‘retire’.

On 15th August, you decided to make what would surely have been one of the toughest decisions of your life. I do not want to use the word ‘retirement’ because you are way too young and energetic to ‘retire’. You are padding up for the next innings of your life, after an extremely fruitful innings on the cricket field,” PM Modi wrote in the 2-page letter.