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

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	2	3	1	223	120	111.50	384	58.07	1	1	26	3	4	0
ODIs	99	82	17	2385	116*	36.69	2657	89.76	3	15	202	53	44	0
T20Is	18	17	3	468	101	33.42	338	138.46	1	3	42	18	5	0
First-class	53	89	4	3907	203	45.96	6522	59.90	7	26			58	0
List A	142	124	21	3900	129	37.86	4237	92.04	4	27			59	0
Twenty20	64	61	11	1843	101	36.86	1305	141.22	1	12	159	79	32	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	2	1	30	21	0	-	-	-	4.20	-	0	0	0
ODIs	99	21	344	309	6	1/13	1/13	51.50	5.38	57.3	0	0	0
T20Is	18	3	24	39	1	1/6	1/6	39.00	9.75	24.0	0	0	0
First-class	53		960	424	12	3/31		35.33	2.65	80.0	0	0	0
List A	142		1044	873	24	4/23	4/23	36.37	5.01	43.5	2	0	0
Twenty20	64	27	353	411	15	2/17	2/17	27.40	6.98	23.5	0	0	0

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.