Suresh Raina Profile

Suresh Raina Profile

Suresh Raina represents the new age Indian cricketer. An attacking left-hander who goes for the big shots with impunity and clears the field with a swashbuckling flourish when at the top of his game, Raina is also equally capable of attracting applause as an electric fielder in the circle. It has taken him five years to cement his place as an India regular, moving from a limited-overs specialist who played 98 ODIs to one who became the 12th Indian to make a Test century on debut. Raina made his Test debut in Sri Lanka as a replacement for injured team-mate Yuvraj Singh, who, like Raina, was a left-hander, a dasher, and in the early 2000s, India's most athletic fielder. With the Test spot finally earned and a growing ability to spend long hours at the crease and see a crisis through, Raina may think of 2009-10 as the season of his turnaround. 

Raina's ability to split the field and discover gaps where fielders could not be placed earned him high praise when he first burst through to play for India in December 2006. The early years, however, were marked by a stack of attractive cameos in ODIs, but only a handful emphatic performances that changed the course of games. A string of 15 ODIs without a half-century found Raina being dropped from the national team, missing out on the 2007 World Cup and falling off the selectors' radar.

An 18-month gap from international cricket had Raina producing a mountain of runs in domestic cricket before he marked his return to the Indian team in the Asia Cup in June 2008 with two centuries and the second-highest aggregate in the tournament. The last three years have been Raina's most prolific, with three centuries and 12 of his 15 ODI fifties, and a growing stature in the line-up as one of India's responsible gen-next batsmen.

His tenacity at the worst of times is typical of someone who has spent his teenage years living away from home in the demanding world of the Uttar Pradesh sports hostel, where a lack of facilities or grooming produces cricketers who must match talent with determination. At the under-19 level, Raina was prodigious with his run-scoring and a string of double-hundreds took him to the Indian junior team and beyond it, to India colours. For a player of his ability, though, India must hope that Raina's best innings are still to be played.

 

Full name Suresh Kumar Raina

Born November 27, 1986, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 

Current age 23 years 360 days

Major teams India, Chennai Super Kings, India Blue, India Under-19s, Indian Board President's XI, Rajasthan Cricket Association President's XI, Uttar Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Under-16s

Also known as Sanu

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Batting and fielding averages

 

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	6	9	1	364	120	45.50	611	59.57	1	2	48	3	7	0
ODIs	104	87	18	2515	116*	36.44	2786	90.27	3	16	215	56	45	0
T20Is	18	17	3	468	101	33.42	338	138.46	1	3	42	18	5	0
First-class	57	95	4	4048	203	44.48	6749	59.97	7	27			61	0
List A	147	129	22	4030	129	37.66	4366	92.30	4	28			60	0
Twenty20	70	67	12	2046	101	37.20	1426	143.47	1	14	172	91	36	0

 

Bowling Averages

 

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	6	6	276	136	4	2/38	2/53	34.00	2.95	69.0	0	0	0
ODIs	104	22	362	327	6	1/13	1/13	54.50	5.41	60.3	0	0	0
T20Is	18	3	24	39	1	1/6	1/6	39.00	9.75	24.0	0	0	0
First-class	57		1206	539	16	3/31		33.68	2.68	75.3	0	0	0
List A	147		1062	891	24	4/23	4/23	37.12	5.03	44.2	2	0	0
Twenty20	70	29	389	449	20	4/26	4/26	22.45	6.92	19.4	1	0	0

Career statistics

Test debut     Sri Lanka v India at Colombo (SSC), Jul 26-30, 2010
Last Test     India v New Zealand at Hyderabad (Deccan), Nov 12-16, 2010

ODI debut	Sri Lanka v India at Dambulla, Jul 30, 2005
Last ODI	India v Australia at Visakhapatnam, Oct 20, 2010

T20I debut     South Africa v India at Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006
Last T20I     Zimbabwe v India at Harare, Jun 13, 2010 

First-class debut     2002/03
Last First-class     India v New Zealand at Hyderabad (Deccan), Nov 12-16, 2010
List A debut     2004/05
Last List A     India v Australia at Visakhapatnam, Oct 20, 2010
Twenty20 debut     South Africa v India at Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006
Last Twenty20     Warriors v Chennai Super Kings at Johannesburg, Sep 26, 2010