The role of number 73 in MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina retirements on Independence Day

Bengaluru: A day after they landed in Chennai for Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) IPL 2020 preparatory camp, both MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina bid adieu to international cricket on the same day, on Independence Day (August 15). What was the real reason for both exiting on the same day? Here is what Raina said.

First, it was Dhoni who took to Instagram to announce his retirement from international cricket. A few minutes later, Raina too joined him in quitting, breaking the news on the same platform.

Now, Raina has revealed that they both had “made up their minds” to announce their retirements on Independence Day. He explained the move.

“We had already made up our minds to retire on Saturday (August 15). Dhoni's jersey number is 7 and mine is 3 — put it together and it makes 73. And on August 15, India completed 73 years of independence, so there couldn't have been a better day,” Raina told Dainik Jagran.

“Dhoni began his career on December 23 (2004) against Bangladesh in Chittagong, while I made my debut on July 30 (2005) against Sri Lanka. Both of us almost began together in international cricket, remained together at CSK, and so we now retired together and will continue to play in IPL together,” Raina added.

Dhoni and Raina have won World Cup 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013 together for India besides two IPL titles for CSK. Raina played 153 ODIs under Dhoni’s captaincy.