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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Suresh Raina



Full Name: Suresh Kumar Raina
Date of Birth: 27 November 1986
Major teams India, Chennai Super Kings, India Blue,India Under-19s, Indian Board President's XI,Rajasthan Cricket Association President's XI, Uttar Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh Under-16s
Also known as Sanu
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm offbreak


This man has been in the limelight for quite a while now, for all the good reasons, of course. Way back in the year 1999, Suresh Raina could have only imagined himself being a part of the National team, when he moved from his hometown Ghaziabad to Lucknow to attend the government Sports College (Mohammed Kaif, too comes from the same college). After a successful under-19 campaign, Raina was then awarded a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy. He returned to the domestic circuit, thereafter.


Batting and fielding averages
MatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100504s6sCtSt
Tests231223120111.5038458.071126340
ODIs9982172385116*36.69265789.7631520253440
T20Is1817346810133.42338138.4613421850
First-class53894390720345.96652259.90726580
List A14212421390012937.86423792.04427590
Twenty20646111184310136.861305141.2211215979320
Bowling averages
MatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10
Tests2130210---4.20-000
ODIs992134430961/131/1351.505.3857.3000
T20Is183243911/61/639.009.7524.0000
First-class53960424123/3135.332.6580.0000
List A1421044873244/234/2336.375.0143.5200
Twenty206427353411152/172/1727.406.9823.5000

An aggressive young batsman who has dismantled bowling attacks across the country, the prodigious Raina puts people in mind of Yuvraj Singh. A string of fine performances at the junior levels - where he frequently bullied his way to double-hundreds - landed him a spot in the India Under-19 squad. His 620 runs in six games, in the 2005-06 season, propelled Uttar Pradesh to Ranji Trophy glory and a couple of composed knocks, when given the opportunity in one-dayers, got Rahul Dravid to gush: "Raina has shown what a phenomenal player he can turn into." His electric fielding added zing to the one-day side and it came as no surprise when, even before getting an ODI fifty, he was fast-tracked into the Test side against England in March 2006, and on the subsequent tour to the West Indies. However, his early promise turned into a false dawn - he couldn't manage a half-century in 15 innings - and lost his place in the one-day side on the South African tour. He played two ODIs in January 2007 but was not recalled until a year later, when India named their 16-man squad for the CB Series in Australia. Raina finally played to his true potential in the Asia Cup, slamming two centuries and finishing the second-highest run-getter.



Aged 15, Suresh Raina was spotted by Indian selectors playing for Uttar Pradesh under-16s and was drafted into India's under-19 tour of England where he notched two fifties. Aged 16, he made his first-class debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam in February 2003, although didn't play another match until the following season.Following injuries to Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly he was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka, but was dismissed for a golden duck on debut to Muttiah Muralidaran. Since then, Raina has enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the selectors on account of some hot-and-cold consistency.In June 2008, he was drafted into the side for the Kitply Cup but it wasn't until the subsequent Asia Cup that Raina showed what a potentially lethal batsman he can be. He scored two centuries and two half centuries in that series and thus sealed his reputation as a clean striker of the ball. Since then he has been a regular in the ODI and Twenty20 International setup and has delivered on numerous occasions. He did, however, have a disastrous World Twenty20 2009, a series he will be looking to put behind him at the earliest.It is because of inconsistent performances like this that the selectors have not shown faith in him for the longest version of the game. Raina is more of an attacking cricketer that may come across as reckless at times because of his affinity for fast runs. He is a vital member of his Chennai franchise in the IPL and an extremely sharp fielder.