Suresh Raina

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**Suresh Raina**
Personal information

Born	27 November 1986 (age 25) Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Nickname	Sonu
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right arm off break
Role	Batsman, occasional bowler
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 265)	26 July 2010 v Sri Lanka
Last Test	31 August 2012 v New Zealand
ODI debut (cap 159)	30 July 2005 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	4 August 2012 v Sri lanka
T20I debut	1 December 2006 v South Africa
Last T20I	7 August 2012 v Sri Lanka
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2002/03–present	Uttar Pradesh
2008–present	Chennai Super Kings
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	T20I
Matches	17	151	73	26
Runs scored	768	3,699	4,832	631
Batting average	28.44	35.56	42.38	33.21
100s/50s	1/7	3/24	9/33	1/3
Top score	120	116*	204*	101
Balls bowled	921	1,003	2,157	84
Wickets	13	16	26	5
Bowling average	40.92	53.31	42.46	25.80
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	0	0	n/a
Best bowling	2/1	2/17	3/31	2/49
Catches/stumpings	22/–	63/–	83/–	9/–
Source: ESPNCricinfo, 6 September 2012

Suresh Kumar Raina (

pronunciation (help·info)) (born 27 November 1986) is an Indian cricketer from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. He is an attacking left-handed middle-order batsman and an occasional off-spin bowler. He plays for Uttar Pradesh in all forms of domestic cricket and is the vice-captain of Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. He is also the highest run-getter in the IPL.

Raina made his ODI debut in 2005 against Sri Lanka at the age of 18. However, his Test debut came only five years later, in 2010, against the same opposition. Raina was a part of India's World Cup winning team of 2011. He is the only Indian player to have scored a century in all formats of international cricket.

Personal life

Raina's family comes from the town of Rainawari, in Jammu & Kashmir, thus the surname "Raina". Raina's were Kashmiri Pandits from Srinagar who were forced to leave due to hardships faced because of persecutions by Muslims.^[1]. His father's name "Tirlokchand Raina", Mother's name "Parvesh Raina" and Elder Brother's name "Dinesh Raina".^[2]

Raina decided to take up cricket seriously in 1999, and moved from his city Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh (near New Delhi) to Lucknow, to attend the specialist government Sports College.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] He was selected to participate in the Challenger Series in early 2005,^[6] and after injury to Sachin Tendulkar and suspension to captain Sourav Ganguly, Raina was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka.^[7]

An article by Suresh Raina was featured in the 2012 book Rahul Dravid: Timeless Steel

Career

Early international career

Raina bowling in the nets

Raina had a difficult start to his international career, being dismissed first ball by Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.^[8] 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 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 scoring 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.^[9] 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 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.^[10] 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.^[11]^[12] Since then, Raina has been a member of India's full-strength ODI and T20 team.

http://topnews.in/files/Suresh-Raina_1.jpg===2010 World Twenty20=== During the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies, Raina was criticised for a perceived weakness against the short ball. 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 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.

2010 South Africa tour of India

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. 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...

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 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 dropped in favour of rookie Cheteshwar Pujara for the remainder of the series, in which India battled back to draw, 1–1.

2011 Cricket World Cup

He was on the bench through the first half of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni went with the in-form Yusuf Pathan. 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 quarter-finals as 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 and scored unbeaten 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 Younis Khan's dismissal of Yuvraj's over.^[13] He took another catch in the final against Sri Lanka, and did not have to bat.

2011 tour of the West Indies

After the World Cup Raina took over as captain of the ODI side for the tour of the West Indies after Dhoni opted to rest and Gambhir was injured. India won the series, but Raina averaged just 16.4. In the Test matches he scored 232 runs at the average of 46.4 making crucial fifties in each Test.

2011 tour of England

He 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.^[14]^[15]

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 111 balls.In the first One Day International he scored 88, but fell to steven Finn.

2012 Tour of Sri Lanka

In the first ODI, Suresh Raina played an attacking 45 ball, 50-run knock to help India reach 314.They eventually won the match by 21 runs on 21 July 2012.
In the second ODI he was out for 1 but he came back stronger in third ODI where he played a blistering 45 ball 65 to hand India a five wicket win and he eventually also won MOM award for his performance that too when gambhir scored a century in that match. ^[16]
He continued his good form in the 4th ODI as he score his 3rd half-century of the series and helped India beat srilanka by 6 wicktes by scoring 58*.
He was out for a duck in the last ODI.

Indian Premier League

Suresh Raina was signed by the Chennai Super Kings for $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 in 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 as the runners-up of the league with Raina with 421 scoring the most runs for them.

Raina found form in the 2009 IPL scoring 434 runs off the 14 games he had played at a strike rate over 140.00.He made a sensational 98 runs from 55 balls (losing his century due to scoring errors) against the Rajasthan Royals at Centurion.He was the fourth leading-run getter of the tournament and second for the Super kings behind Orange-cap holder Matthew Hayden.Raina also became the fifth economical bowler of the tournament taking 7 wickets in all.

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 the "best fielder award" by the BCCI ahead of the finals.^[17] 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.

At the end of the season,Raina set the record for scoring the most no. of runs in the tournament, with 421, 434, and 520 and also taking the most no. of catches, two records that are still to be broken.^[18] Raina also had 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 Dhoni.

In the 2011 IPL too, Suresh 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 four 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 favor.

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 to help his team put a big total on board.

Season by season at IPL

IPL Batting Statistics of Suresh Raina
Year	Team	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100	50	4s	6s
2008	Chennai Super Kings ^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23]	14	421	55*	38.27	142.71	0	3	35	18
2009		14	434	98	32.00	140.90	0	2	37	21
2010		16	520	83*	47.27	142.85	0	4	45	22
2011		16	438	73*	31.28	134.76	0	4	36	17
2012		18	441	73	26.00	135.69	0	1	36	19
2008-2012 Total ^[24]		78	2254	98	33.64	139.39	0	14	189	97