Suresh Raina Drops Bombshell On India Ouster During Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble Era
Suresh Raina retired from international cricket in 2020 at the age of 33 after being left out of India's squad for the 2019 ODI World Cup in England.
- Suresh Raina has opened up about his exile from the team, which eventually forced him into early retirement
- Raina said he had initially failed the Yo-Yo Test but wasn't recalled to the side even after clearing it later
- "Why weren't we selected after that? Or were you just looking for a reason?" said Raina
Former India batter Suresh Raina has opened up about his exile from the team, which eventually forced him into early retirement. The 39-year-old revealed that he had asked tough questions of the then head coach, Anil Kumble, and captain, Virat Kohli, but never received a concrete response from either of them. Raina retired from international cricket in 2020 at the age of 33 after being left out of India's squad for the 2019 ODI World Cup in England. The southpaw also recalled that he had initially failed the Yo-Yo Test but was not recalled to the side even after clearing it later.
"No, every captain has his own team, right... as you can see. When someone else became captain, he felt this player is better, that player is better. Because as you can see, everything kept changing after that. People like us, when I and Yuvi pa [Yuvraj Singh] were there, we failed the Yo-Yo test too. After that, we cleared it as well, played a lot of domestic cricket, scored a lot of runs too," Raina told former India batter Aakash Chopra during a candid chat.
"I asked questions, I didn't get answers. So I asked questions, talked to people... captain and coaches."
Raina, however, admitted that he could have done some things differently that might have convinced the management to keep him in the team, but insisted that he has no regrets about it.
"Then came the 2019 World Cup in England, where preference was given to a different batter. A different wicketkeeper went there. But every captain has a different role, all those things were different. At that time, I felt I could have done better, maybe Yuvi pa could have done better... because someone experienced was needed there since both of us had played together for so long. But alright, there's no point talking about all that now," he added.
Raina also hinted that his knee injury may have been cited as a reason for his omission from the team.
"But it does make a lot of difference, definitely. We became the fittest team at that time, whatever we were told, we passed it too, so why weren't we selected after that? Or were you just looking for a reason? Even back then we used to do a different Yo-Yo when Gary [Kirsten] used to conduct it... we passed that, only then were we in the team," Raina said.
India Cricket Team
Virat Kohli
Suresh Raina