Former India cricketer Ajinkya Rahane announced his retirement late last month. Since then, he has signed for Amsterdam Flames in the European T20 competition. In the meantime, the Mumbai batter revealed that it was legendary Sachin Tendulkar who was among the first names to contact him after announcing his retirement.
The 38-year-old said that Tendulkar indicated that he had expected him to continue playing for a longer period. However, Rahane informed him that he had no desire to extend his career simply for the sake of it. He further added that his teammates such as Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah also reached out to him after the public statement.
“The first call came from Sachin (Tendulkar) paaji, who said he thought I would play for longer. I told him I didn’t want to drag on because I was retiring without any regrets. Irfan Pathan also called, while Pujara, Virat, Rohit and Bumrah all messaged me. I told everyone the same thing: I was satisfied because I had given everything to the game,” Rahane told the Indian Express.
The retirement announcement itself proved difficult for Rahane. In a video shared on social media, he became emotional while speaking about the end of his international journey. He later said the recording affected him more deeply than he had anticipated.
“After recording the video, I cried a lot. I was emotional while discussing retirement with my family, but I didn’t expect the recording itself to affect me so much. The reality hit that I would no longer do something I had loved for years. That thought stayed with me throughout the recording,” said Rahane.
Rahane’s international career in numbers
Rahane’s international career covered 85 Tests, 90 ODIs and 20 T20Is. He scored more than 8,000 international runs and last represented India in 2023, when the team played the West Indies in Port of Spain. Just ahead of that, the veteran was dropped from the squad and made his return in the World Test Championship, which happened just before the West Indies series.
His career also included one of India’s most notable overseas Test achievements in recent years. Rahane led the side during the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It was under his leadership that India dealt with a series of injuries before securing a memorable 2-1 series victory.
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