Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina

Personal information
Full name	Suresh Kumar Raina
Born	27 November 1986 (1986-11-27) (age 23) Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Nickname	Sanu
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right arm off break
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	India
ODI debut (cap 159)	30 July 2005 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	5 January 2010 v Sri Lanka
Only T20I (cap 8)	1 December 2006 v South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2002/03–present	Uttar Pradesh
2008–present	Chennai Super Kings
Career statistics
Competition	ODIs	FC	List A	T20
Matches	84	49	125	41
Runs scored	1,983	3,505	3,449	1004
Batting average	36.05	43.81	37.43	30.42
100s/50s	3/14	6/23	3/26	0/6
Top score	116*	203	129	98
Balls bowled	308	906	948	198
Wickets	6	12	23	9
Bowling average	45.83	31.83	30.47	23.33
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	n/a	0	n/a	n/a
Best bowling	1/13	3/31	4/23	2/17
Catches/stumpings	38/–	49/–	49/–	20/–
Source: CricketArchive, 28 November 2009

Suresh Kumar Raina pronunciation (help·info) (born 27 November 1986, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India) is an Indian cricketer from the state of Uttar Pradesh. Raina has been a member of the Indian cricket team for ODIs since July 2005, and was included in the Test squad in early 2006, but has yet to make his Test debut. Domestically he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy and Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy. He is primarily a left-hand batsman, who is known for his ability to hit the stumps from the infield. He is also an occasional off-spinner.

Early years

Raina batting in the nets.

The youngest in a family of five children, Raina decided to take up cricket seriously in 1999, and moved from his home town of Ghaziabad, near New Delhi to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to attend the specialist government Sports College. He rose to become the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s came to prominence amongst Indian selectors in 2002, when he was selected at the age of 15 and a half years for the U-19 tour to England, where he made a pair of half-centuries in the U-19 Test matches.^[1] He toured Sri Lanka later that year with the U-17 team. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam in February 2003 at the age of 16, but did not play another match until the following season. In late 2003, he toured Pakistan for the U-19 Asian ODI Championship before being selected for the 2004 U-19 World Cup, where he scored three half centuries, including a 90 scored off only 38 balls. He was then awarded a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy and in early 2005, he made his first-class limited overs debut, and scored 645 runs that season at an average of 53.75[1]. He was selected to participate in the Challenger Series in early 2005 ^[2], and after injury to Sachin Tendulkar and suspension to captain Sourav Ganguly, Raina was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka ^[3].

International career

Raina at fielding practice, attempting to catch the black ball in the left hand part of the picture.

Raina had a difficult start to his international career, being dismissed for a golden duck by a doosra from spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.^[4] After scoring 37 runs in the tournament at an average of 12.33, and with the return of Ganguly from suspension, Raina was omitted from the starting XI for the tour of Zimbabwe. With Ganguly being sacked after a row with Indian coach Greg Chappell and Mohammed Kaif injured, Raina played in five of the matches against Sri Lanka in India, mostly as a supersub, and made a cameo 39 not out to guide the team to victory in the fourth ODI. He was again watching from the sidelines in the series against South Africa after Kaif's return and Gautam Gambhir forced his entry into the team with a century, but got another chance to become a regular member of the Indian middle order during the 2006 tour of Pakistan, after vice-captain Virender Sehwag returned home injured. He was only required to bat in one match, in which he helped guide the latter part of the successful run chase in the fourth ODI.

Upon his return to India, he was called up to the Test squad, at the expense of former captain Sourav Ganguly, although he did not play in the Test series against England. He earned his first man of the match award in the subsequent ODI series after scoing an unbeaten 81* in a successful run-chase at Faridabad. After scoring two more half-centuries in the series at an average of 48, Raina was awarded a BCCI C-grade contract [2]. He was selected for both squads for the tour to the West Indies, but is yet to make his Test debut.

After a poor run in the Malaysia Tri-Series in September and in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, Raina was relegated to the bench midway through the ODI tour of South Africa. This spread to the Test team, where he was dropped from the squad altogether despite the injury to Yuvraj Singh, with Sourav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik being recalled to the team.

In January 2008, Raina was recalled to the team and toured Australia for a limited overs campaign, but did not play in any of India's 10 ODIs or the one-off T20 international.

After a strong IPL season in 2008, Raina broke back into the XI for a triangular ODI tournament in Bangladesh when senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar was rested from the competition.

On 25 June 2008, he scored his maiden hundred against Hong Kong during the 2008 Asia Cup. His 66 balls hundred was at the time, the second fastest century in Indian ODI history. ^[5] He scored 84 of 69 against Pakistan and 116 of 107 against Bangladesh, in next two matches. Hence, he won man of the match award successively for three times.^[6][7]

Since then, Raina has been a member of India's full-strength ODI and T20 team.

During the 2009 World Twenty20 in England, Raina was criticised for a perceived weakness against the short ball. He then missed the ODI series in the West Indies because of injury.

In January 2010, Raina scored 106 from 115 balls in the final of the triangular ODI tournament against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh. His innings took India to 245 after they collapsed to be 5/60, but it was not enough to save the match.

Raina played for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League in 2008 and 2009. His bowling has proven more useful in the shortest version of the game: in 2009 he had the fifth best economy rate in the IPL among those bowlers who delivered more than 20 overs.

Raina bowling in the nets.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Suresh Raina

• Player Profile: Suresh Raina from Cricinfo
• Player Profile: Suresh Raina from CricketArchive