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Suresh Raina has heaped praise for multiple reasons on multiple counts and phases in his career. Timing, however, wasn’t his strongest suit. Luck barely favoured this southpaw in his decade long international career, but he had a few moments along the way to make that journey memorable.
Born on 27th November 1986
Suresh Raina made his international debut in 2005 against Sri Lanka after a boatload of runs he’d scored in the Ranji Trophy and an impressive U-19 campaign in 2004. Raina was brought onto the international scene at, barring right now, arguably the most difficult point where an Indian XI was completely saturated. With the likes of Sehwag, Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, and Yuvraj batting at the top of the order, there just was no place for him.
His talent was unquestionable, but in the opportunities he got (which were very few in his earlier days), he proved to be ineffective. India toured for the 2007 ODI and T20 World Cup without Raina in the squad and many thought that his name would just fade away after that.
Time took a steep turn in 2008 with the commencement of the IPL. Raina was brought onboard CSK which was captained by, the then Indian skipper, MS Dhoni. Dhoni, who has been known to have an eye for raw talent and mentoring it to glory, quickly caught up on Raina’s ability and decided that he was worthy of being a part of the international setup.
The coming few years were really fruitful for the young man from Ghaziabad. He was picked in the XI for 2008’s Asia Cup and scored his maiden ODI century there. In the 2010 World Cup, he became the first Indian, and only the third in the world, to score a T20I century. A string of good performances with the bat and handy off-spin bowling earned him a shot at Test cricket too. He paid off that trust duly upon his arrival with a fine century on his Test debut. This hundred made him the first Indian to score a century in all three formats.
This tale continued in India’s victorious World Cup campaign in 2011 as well. Although he was benched for the first few matches, he was responsible for stabilizing the batting and getting through the 50-over quota in the tournament’s second stage. Valiant innings against Pakistan and Australia helped India book a seat to the final against Sri Lanka where he didn’t get the chance to bat.
Averaging in the whereabouts of 40 with an impressive strike rate for 4 years straight had cemented his position as a reliable middle-order batsman. But as faith would have it, we witnessed a very quick downfall. His shortcomings against the short ball were exploited on the quick tracks of South Africa, England and Australia and it was a downward sloping graph thereon out. We witnessed a few good innings, especially in the 2015 World Cup, but Raina couldn’t elevate his form to the prominence it once held.
An entirely different story
His journey in the IPL has been vastly different from what we’ve witnessed in the international scene. As we speak, Raina has the second-highest runs in the league’s history, second only to Virat Kohli. He has won the trophy three times and captained his team, Gujarat Lions, into the playoffs in 2016 as well. Raina’s years at CSK have been immensely memorable as he has gone on to score more than 400 runs in a single season more than any other Indian batter. My favourite T20 innings was his 87 run knock against Kings XI Punjab in the first qualifier of 2014, which came off just 25 balls (that’s a strike rate of 348). Known as Mr IPL, that man has truly been one of a kind in the league’s history.
Raina decided to part ways from International Cricket on 15th August 2020, the same day as MS Dhoni retired from international cricket.
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