Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina born 27 November 1986) is a former Indian international cricketer. An aggressive left-handed middle-order batsman and an occasional off-spin bowler, he is also regarded as one of the best fielders in world cricket. He played for Uttar Pradesh in all forms of domestic cricket. He was the captain of the Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League and is the current vice-captain of the Chennai Super Kings. He has also captained the Indian cricket team and is the second-youngest player ever to captain India. He is the first Indian batsman to hit a century in all three formats of international cricket.
On 15 August 2020, Raina announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket. He pulled from the 2020 Indian Premier League due to personal reasons.
Domestic career
In 2000, Raina decided to play cricket and subsequently moved from his hometown Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh (near New Delhi) to Lucknow, to attend the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow. He rose to become the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s and 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. 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. He debuted in List A Cricket against Madhya Pradesh at Indore in 2005 and scored 16 runs. He played for India green, UP under 16, India Blue, India Red, Rest of India, India under 19, Indian board's president's XI, Rajasthan Cricket association's president's XI, India seniors, Central zone. In Ranji trophy 2005-06 season he scored 620 in 6 games. In 2018 Akshdeep Nath replaced him as UP's Ranji trophy captain due to poor performance of scoring 105 runs in 9 innings averaging 11.66.
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.
Indian Premier League
Raina was awarded "best fielder" by the BCCI ahead of the finals of IPL 2010. He played a vital half-century which turned the final to Chennai's tide who ultimately went on to become the champions beating the Mumbai Indians. For his performances in 2010, he was named in the Cricinfo IPL XI.
For his performances in 2013, he was named in the Cricinfo CLT20 XI.
On 30 May 2014, he made 87 runs out of 25 balls against Kings XI Punjab in qualifier 2. He missed the fastest century of cricketing history by just 13 runs due to runout. For his performances in 2014, he was named in the Cricinfo IPL XI and Cricinfo CLT20 XI.
In 2016, Raina was signed for the Gujarat Lions after the suspension of CSK. He captained the team for the season, and remained consistent with batting, scoring 399 runs in 15 innings. Raina had to leave for the Netherlands in between season 9 for the birth of his first child thus making him miss his first-ever match in nine seasons of IPL.
On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI.
He was named in the Cricbuzz IPL XI of the tournament for 2017.
In IPL 2018, Raina was retained by the returning Super Kings for a price tag of 11 crores ($1.7 million). During the second game of the tournament, Raina suffered a calf injury, due to which he was ruled out of the next two games.
On 23 March 2019, in the first match of the 12th edition of the tournament against RCB, he became the first batsman to score 5000 runs in the IPL.
In 2020, Raina flew to UAE where the IPL was to play due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with the Super Kings squad but days later returned to India and withdrew from the 2020 season of IPL citing personal reasons.
In 2021, Raina became the fourth player in IPL history to play 200 matches, behind MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, and Dinesh Karthik.
International career
During the semi-final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Raina batted with tailenders to score an unbeaten 36, a significant contribution to India's final tally of 260.
Apart from a half-century in the first Test of India tour of England 2011 at Lord's, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings. He struggled against short bowling and in the final Test was out for a 29-ball duck, the longest in India's Test history.
In the second ODI of the Indian tour of Sri Lanka 2012, he was out for 1 but he came back stronger in the third ODI where he played a blistering 45 balls 65 to hand India a five-wicket win and he eventually also won the man of the match award for his performance. Gambhir too scored a century in that match. After the Tour of Sri Lanka, When the England team came to India, he was dropped and gave away his spot to Yuvraj Singh, who made a comeback after suffering from Cancer.
He was named as the 12th man in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2012 T20 World Cup by the ICC.
His knock of 100 against England during the England tour of India 2012–13 at Cardiff was nominated to be one of the best ODI batting performances of the year by ESPNCricinfo.
Suresh Raina was not selected in India's first tour to the USA, where they played against West Indies for 2 T20Is. However, he made a re-entry to the ODI team for a series against New Zealand. Later he was ruled out due to Chikungunya.
In October 2018, he was named in India C's squad for the 2018–19 Deodhar Trophy.
In 2011, India toured West Indies after the World Cup with captain MS Dhoni rested and vice-captain Virender Sehwag injured. Gautam Gambhir was named the captain for the ODIs and T20's with Raina as his deputy. But due to injury, Gautam Gambhir was ruled out with Raina captaining with Harbhajan Singh as his deputy. During the 2014 Bangladesh series, he led his team to a 2–0 victory in the series. During the 2nd match of the series, India was all out for 105 runs while batting first. Suresh Raina and his young team defended 105 runs and eventually won the match by 47 runs.
Raina announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket on 15 August 2020 - minutes after the retirement of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Raina took to Instagram saying, "It was nothing but lovely playing with you, @mahi7781. With my heart full of pride, I choose to join you in your journey. Thank you, India. Jai Hind."
Playing style
Suresh is an attacking middle-order left-handed batter. He had more success in limited over Cricket than Test. He has a weakness of short-pitched balls and throughout his career opposition teams tried to exploit this weakness. In Ranji's trophy, he has struggled against short balls. He has been widely criticized for his short ball weakness. He is the part-time off-break bowler. His favorite scoring area is mid-wickets on the side. Most times he plays inside out off drive shot. While trying to hit on offside, he creates room for himself.
Personal life
Suresh Raina's father Trilokchand Raina was a military officer, who had mastery in making bombs in an ordinance factory. Raina's ancestral village is 'Rainawari' in the Jammu and Kashmir union territory of India. His father left the village after the killings of Kashmir Pandits in the 1990s. The family settled down in Muradnagar town. His father had a 10,000 rupees salary and he couldn't afford the high Cricket coaching fees for Suresh. Then Raina was admitted to the Guru Gobind Singh sports college, Lucknow in 1998. Raina said he always remains careful not to mention anything, which would remind his father about the tragedy of Kashmir. Suresh Raina had a house in Rainawari, but due to fear of life, they had to leave it. Raina has a sister and his one elder brother is in the Indian Army.
Raina married Priyanka on 3 April 2015. They have a daughter and a son.
Raina's uncle Ashok Kumar was assaulted by robbers during a robbery in their house in Punjab. He didn't survive. Due to this, Raina had withdrawn from the 2020 IPL season to be with his family.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is his closest friend.
Achievements
- He is the first Indian player to score 6000 as well as 8000 runs in a Twenty20 career.
- He is the first-ever cricketer to reach 5,000 runs in IPL.
- He holds the record of most no. of catches (102) in the IPL.
- He is the second after Chris Gayle and the first Indian player to hit 100 sixes in the IPL.
- He is the highest run-scorer in the CLT20 (842 runs)
- He holds the record for scoring the most fifties in Champions League T20 history(6)
- He holds the record for the most runs scored in the powerplay in an IPL match
