Suresh Raina could have been handled better: Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra, the former Indian cricketer, said that he was a tad surprised after Suresh Raina announced his retirement from international cricket. On Saturday, August 15, the southpaw, along with MS Dhoni, decided to hang his boots from the highest level. As per Chopra, the decision was surprising as the left-hander had expressed desire to continue playing for India.

The 33-year-old Raina last played in the tour of England in 2018 and went off the radar ever since then. However, his knee injury and subsequent surgery have made life a little tough for him. He hasn’t played any form of cricket since the final of the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL), representing the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) against Mumbai Indians (MI).

Suresh Raina deserved better, says Chopra

“This was actually a bolt from the blue. And there are 2-3 reasons for that. Firstly, Raina is only 33 years old, so he is fairly young. Second thing is that we had done an interview with Suresh Raina recently in which he regularly said that he was looking forward to play for India again.

“He said that he was doing his best and would be scoring a lot of runs. He said that after his knee surgery he was feeling stronger and hitting the ball well,” Chopra was quoted as saying on his official YouTube channel.

Chopra didn’t mince any words in saying that Raina wasn’t handled in a proper way. “Raina deserved better. I think Raina could have been handled a lot better. Because when he made a comeback also, in one of the three matches he scored 40-50 I think and in one match he remained not out and was dismissed early in the other match. But he did not get a chance after that,” Chopra added.

Raina made his debut back in July 2005, a few months after Dhoni forayed into the international scene against Bangladesh. Thereafter, he went on to ply his trade in all the three formats for Team India. However, in ODIs and T20Is, he turned out to be one of India’s mainstays. For the Men in Blue, Raina notched seven tons and 48 half-centuries to show for his efforts.