Ajinkya Rahane recently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. The veteran was already dropped from Team India, and he was not in the scheme of things. His IPL career was almost coming to an end after two below-par seasons with the Kolkata Knight Riders. The veteran recently opened up on the players who called him after he bid adieu to the sport. The 38-year-old cricketer said that Sachin Tendulkar was the first to call him and also asked why he didn’t continue playing.

Rahane also mentioned the names of other players, including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who spoke to him.

“The first call was from Sachin (Tendulkar) paaji, who said, ‘I thought you would play for longer’. I told him I didn’t want to carry on because I was retiring without regrets. Irfan Pathan also spoke to me while Virat, Rohit, Bumrah and Pujara messaged me. I told the same thing to them as well. I was satisfied after giving everything to the game,” Ajinkya Rahane told Indian Express.

He scored over 5,000 Test runs at an average of 38.46, including 12 hundreds in 85 red-ball matches.

The right-handed batter also competed in 110 white-ball games for the Men in Blue, amassing over 3,000 runs with three hundreds and 25 fifties.

“I cried a lot after recording retirement video”: Ajinkya Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane couldn’t control his emotions after recording the retirement announcement video. He thanked everyone for believing in him during his career. He made his India debut in 2011 and played a big role in the team’s success in the five-day format.

“I cried a lot after recording the video.

I was emotional when I opened up on the subject of retirement in front of my family. I wasn’t expecting that recording would impact me so much. The reality of going away from the sport hit me hard. It was tough as I would no longer do something I had been doing for years. That thought was with me while recording,” Rahane said.

He was successful as India captain in limited opportunities. The sub-continent team defeated Australia by a margin of 2-1 despite being 0-1 down at one stage in the away bilateral assignment.