Suresh Raina


Suresh Raina is an 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 plays 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 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.
Raina made his ODI debut in July 2005 against Sri Lanka at the age of 19. However, his Test debut came about five years later, in July 2010, against the same opposition. He scored a hundred on his Test debut. He was a part of the Indian squad that won the 2011 World Cup.

Early life

He lives in Rajnagar, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. He has three elder brothers Dinesh Raina, Naresh Raina and Mukesh Raina and one elder sister Renu.

Career

In 2000, Raina decided to play cricket and subsequently moved from his hometown Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 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. 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.
In 2017, Raina did not manage to remain a regular fixture in the Indian team and was dropped from the Annual Retainership of the BCCI.

2010 South Africa tour of India

During South Africa's tour to India in 2010, Raina was called in the squad for the second test but was not selected in the playing XI. He then played against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe as all the other first-choice players were rested from the tournament. India lost the first match under his captaincy against Zimbabwe by six wickets but won the next match against Sri Lanka.
Suresh Raina also captained the Indian Cricket team for the T-20 series against Zimbabwe in June 2010 and India won the 2 match series 2–0. He was the leading run scorer in this series. Virat Kohli and R Ashwin made their T-20 debuts in Raina's captaincy.

2010 tour of Sri Lanka

Raina was then brought into the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in July and August 2010. He made his debut in the Second Test after Yuvraj Singh was ill. Sri Lanka made 4/642 declared and India was in trouble at 4/241 when Raina came in to join Sachin Tendulkar. Raina went on to reach the maiden century on debut becoming few of Indian players to do so as the pair put on a double century partnership. Yuvraj recovered in time for the Third Test but the selectors opted to retain Raina. However, due to poor form throughout 2010 and a failure to make any impact on the Centurion Test which South Africa won by an innings, he was dropped in favour of rookie Cheteshwar Pujara for the remainder of the series, in which India battled back to a 1–1 draw. He made 100.

2011 Cricket World Cup

Raina was on the bench through the first half of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni instead went with the in-form Yusuf Pathan. This remained so until the group game against West Indies, which Raina played in place of an injured Virender Sehwag. Against defending champions Australia in the quarter-final, Dhoni made a strategic change, omitting Yusuf Pathan in favour of Raina. Raina responded by assisting Yuvraj Singh in a successful run chase through high pressure, making 34 from 28 balls to carry India to victory. In the semi-final against Pakistan, he batted with tailenders to score an unbeaten 36, a significant contribution to India's final tally of 260. He also took Younis Khan's catch off of Yuvraj's bowling.
Suresh Raina played some crucial knocks in quarter-final and semi-final of the World Cup, which helped India to win the 2011 ICC Cricket WorldCup. Gary Kirsten, the then coach of India, said 'Raina won the World Cup for us with some crucial knocks'.

Captaincy and 2011 West Indies tour

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 One-dayers and T20's with Raina as his deputy. But due to injury Gambhir was ruled out, with Raina captaining with Harbhajan as his deputy. India won the series, but Raina averaged just 16.4. In the Test matches, he scored 232 runs at the average of 46.4 scoring crucial fifties in each Test.

2011 tour of England

Raina was selected for the England tour in July. There was a lot of debate on who should play the first Test at Lord's, Yuvraj or Raina. But a century in a practice match against Somerset sealed a place for him in the playing eleven. Apart from a half-century in the first Test 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.
Raina running through a poor form in the Test series especially in the last match made some impact in the 5 match-ODI series though the team was unable to secure a win at all. He top-scored in a rain-affected game at the Lord's scoring a commendable 84 from 75 balls.

2012 Tour of Sri Lanka

He was named as 12th man in the 'Team of the Tournament' for the 2012 T20 World Cup by the ICC.

2012–13 England tour of India

Raina registered strong performances in this series, which India won 3–2. He scored 277 runs at an average of 92.33 with four consecutive half-centuries but only two of them in a winning cause. He became 13th Indian batsman to cross 4000 international runs, in his 159th ODI and got his first Man of the Series award in this format. At the end of the series, he broke into the ICC top 10 ranked batsmen for the first time in his career.
His knock of 100 against England at Cardiff was nominated to be one of the best ODI batting performance of the year by ESPNCricinfo.

2014–15 tour of Australia

Suresh was included into India's test squad after almost two years. Raina was selected in the final Test match at Sydney, under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.
Later on, he announced his return to form in the Tri-Series with a flamboyant 51 against Australia.

2016

Suresh Raina was not selected in India's first tour to USA, where they play West Indies for 2 T20Is. However, he made a reentry to the ODI team for a series against New Zealand. Later he was ruled out due to Chikungunya.

2017

He was selected for a T20 series against England. In that series, he made a strong comeback. He scored a 63 in the 3rd T20.

2018

In January 2018, he was recalled into Indian side for a 3 match T20I series against South Africa. He had a strike rate of 154, and his performance of 43 off 24 balls and a wicket in the last T20 helped India to seize the series 2–1. He was awarded Man of the Match in the same match. In October 2018, he was named in India C's squad for the 2018–19 Deodhar Trophy.

Captaincy

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 One-dayers 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. India won the series, and his captaincy was highly appreciated by former west-Indian legends.
He was again declared captain of the young Indian cricket team during 2014 Bangladesh series in 2014 while all the regular players of Indian cricket were rested. He led his team for 2–0 victory in the series. His personal performance was also splendid in the low scoring series as he captained the side very aggressively throughout the series. He was praised all over the world for his captaincy skills which he displayed during the 2nd ODI of this series. India was all out scoring 104 runs while batting first and Suresh Raina and his young team defended 104 runs and won the match by 54 runs. His captaincy was the deciding factor of this match along with Stuart Binny's bowling performance.

Indian Premier League

Raina was signed by the Chennai Super Kings for US$650,000 for the first three years of the tournament. Raina made significant contributions in the first edition of the tournament to compensate the Chennai Super Kings over the losses of
key players like Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram. He played a vital Man of the Match performance in the last league fixture to give Chennai Super Kings the win they required to qualify for the semi-finals. Ultimately the Super Kings finished
Again in 2010 IPL, Raina's consistent batting throughout the series won him applause and became the all-time run-getter of the league surpassing Australian legend Adam Gilchrist halfway down the tournament. He also captained the Super Kings for three matches in skipper Dhoni's absence and took some sensational catches in the field. He scored 520 runs in all, making him the third highest run-getter of the series and the first for Chennai. He also was awarded "best fielder" by the BCCI ahead of the finals. 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.
At the end of the season, Raina set the record for most runs scored in the tournament, with 421, 434, and 520 and also taking the most no. of catches, two records that are still unbroken. Raina also hit the second maximum no. of sixes behind Adam Gilchrist in the three editions of the league. He was retained by the Super Kings for the 2011 Indian Premier League along with Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel and skipper MS Dhoni.
In the 2011 IPL too, Raina maintained his reputation as the leading run-scorer with 438 runs, again being the only player to cross 400 do so for all the seven seasons. His most crucial knock came against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifier where he played a stunning innings to get the game back to Chennai's favour.
Despite struggling to find form in the initial stages of the 2012 IPL, Raina found form in the latter stages and finished the tournament as Chennai's leading run scorer, scoring 441 runs and on the course became the only player to score 400 runs in every IPL. He scored a blistering 73 in the final against Kolkata Knight Riders and added 116 with Mike Hussey, who scored a magnificent 86, to help his team put a big total on board. He became the first player in the history of IPL to cross the mark of 2000 IPL runs. For his performances in 2012, he was named in the Cricinfo IPL XI.
In 2013, IPL Raina scored 548 runs at a healthy average of 42.15 and strike rate of 150.13. At the start of the season he was struggling with his form but in the later half, he regained his form. He scored his maiden hundred in IPL against Kings XI Punjab. Raina scored an astonishing 99 not out off 52 deliveries against Sunrisers Hyderabad and helped Chennai Super Kings to score a mammoth 223 runs. This was Chennai Super Kings 3rd highest total. In the 1st Qualifier against MI he along with Hussey pounded MI bowlers to reach a score of 193 for 1. For his performances in 2013, 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. He missed the fastest century of the cricketing history by just 13 runs due to a runout. For his performances in 2014, he was named in the Cricinfo IPL XI. In Champions League Twenty20 final he played a blistering knock scoring 109* off just 62 balls and made Chennai Super Kings win the 2nd CLT20 title. For his performances in 2014, he was named in the 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 of season 9 for 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 crore. During the second game of the tournament, Raina suffered a calf injury, due to which he was ruled out of the next two games. This was the first time Raina missed a CSK game. However, Raina returned after just one game.
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.

Personal Life

Raina was married to Priyanka on 3 April 2015. They have a daughter and a son.

Achievements

International arena