Suresh Raina

Suresh Kumar Raina (Kashmiri: सुरेश कुमार रैना (Devanagari), سریش کمار رائنا (Nastaleeq)) About this sound pronunciation (help·info) (born 27 November 1986) is an Indian cricketer from the town of Rainawari, in Jammu & Kashmir.[1] 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 did not make his test debut until the second test against Sri Lanka on the 26th July 2010. Domestically he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy and Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy. He is an attacking left-handed batsman, and a renowned fielder who is known for his ability to hit the stumps from the infield. He is also an occasional off-spinner.

Suresh Raina was the youngest in a Kashmiri Pandit family of five children, who have origins in the Rainawari quarter of Srinagar, a city in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir.[1] Raina decided to take up cricket seriously in 1999, and moved from Ghaziabad, near New Delhi to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to attend the specialist government Sports College.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] He was selected to participate in the Challenger Series in early 2005,[5] and after injury to Sachin Tendulkar and suspension to captain Sourav Ganguly, Raina was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka.[6]
[edit] Indian Premier League

Suresh Raina represents Chennai Super Kings in IPL since 2008 and got three successful seasons for Chennai Super Kings. He holds the record of most runs scored in all IPL matches. [7] He also holds the record for most catches, 27, for a non-wicketkeeper. [8] Besides 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. Overall he has taken 15 wickets in 64.5 overs/ 53 matches, at an average of 29.73 and with an economy rate of 6.87.
Raina bowling in the nets.

Raina was the third-highest run-scorer in the 2010 Indian Premier League and was man-of-the-match in the final, top-scoring with 55 not out from 35 balls and taking the wicket of Harbhajan Singh. He also caught Saurabh Tiwary, running in from the midwicket boundary to take a full-length diving catch.

He was one of the four players retained by the Chennai Super Kings for the 2011 season.
IPL Batting Statistics of Suresh Raina
Year Team Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s
2008 Chennai Super Kings 16 14 3 421 55 38.27 295 142.71 0 3 0 35 18
2009 14 14 0 434 98 31.00 308 140.90 0 2 0 37 21
2010 16 16 5 520 83* 47.27 364 142.85 0 4 0 45 22
2011 9 9 1 273 61 34.12 205 133.17 0 3 1 23 7
2008-2011 Total 55 53 9 1648 98 37.45 1172 140.61 0 12 1 140 68
[edit] 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.[9] 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.[10] He was selected for both squads for the tour to the West Indies, but did not 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. [11] 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 three times.[12][13]

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 5/60, but it was not enough to save the match.

In South Africa's tour of India in 2010, Raina was called in the squad for the second test, but was not selected in the playing XI.

With his 101 from 60 balls with five sixes and nine fours in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 against South Africa on 2 May 2010, he became the third player to score a Twenty20 international century after the West Indies' Chris Gayle and New Zealand's Brendon McCullum.

He captained the Indian team for the Tri-series 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. The Indians then lost their remaining two matches and did not make the final.

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 at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo after Yuvraj Singh was ill. Sri Lanka made 4/642 declared and India were in trouble at 4/241 when Raina came in to join Sachin Tendulkar. Raina went on to reach a century on debut 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, poor form throughout 2010-2011, including a failure to make any impact on the Centurion Test which South Africa won by an innings, he was benched in favor of rookie Cheteshwar Pujara for the remainder of the series, in which India battled back to draw 1-1.

He was on the bench through the first half of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as captain MS Dhoni went with the in-form Virat Kohli. This remained so until the group game against West Indies, which he started due to an injury to Virender Sehwag. He started against defending champions Australia in the quarterfinals as Dhoni made a strategic change, benching big hitting all-rounder Yusuf Pathan in favor of Raina to boost the technical prowess of the lineup. Raina responded by assisting team MVP Yuvraj Singh on a successful run chase through high pressure, making 34 from 28 balls to carry India home alongside Yuvraj. In the semifinal against Pakistan, he batted with tailenders and scored 36 runs without which India would have been hard pressed to bowl Pakistan out, as they ultimately did. He also fielded well in this game, taking the catch which completed Yuvraj's dismissal of Younis Khan. He took another catch in the final against Sri Lanka, and did not have to bat. The tournament marked a return to form for the talented lefty.
[edit] Centuries

* In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
* The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

[edit] Test Cricket centuries
Test Cricket centuries of Suresh Raina
# Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year
1 120 1 Sri Lanka Colombo, Sri Lanka Sinhalese Sports Club 2010
[edit] ODI centuries
ODI Cricket Centuries of Suresh Raina
# Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year
1 101 40 Hong Kong Karachi, Pakistan National Stadium, Karachi 2008
2 116* 42 Bangladesh Karachi, Pakistan National Stadium, Karachi 2008
3 106 87 Sri Lanka Dhaka, Bangladesh Shere Bangla National Stadium 2010