India vs Australia 2014: Does Suresh Raina deserve to be in the Indian Test side?

Suresh Raina was included in the Indian squad for the four-match Test series against Australia starting December 4. While his performances in limited-overs cricket have been outstanding in the off late, the 27-year old hasn’t really had much experience of the longer format in the recent past. Sameer Jha analyses whether his selection was a step in the right direction or not.

Suresh Raina has had a lot of success in the recent past. In India’s tour of England, he anchored India’s comeback by scoring a scintillating century in the second One-Day International after they were hammered 1-3 in the Tests. He scored a century in the finals of Champions League Twenty 20 (CLT20) 2014 to give Chennai Super Kings (CSK) another taste of silverware. In the ODIs against West Indies and Sri Lanka too, his performance has been more than satisfactory (three fifties in the last five innings). Certainly, such a string of good performances would have earned him a lot of fan following.

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That he was picked for the tour to Australia, shouldn’t come as a surprise to many. However, there are arguments against his favor too. Raina last played a First-Class match in the last week of 2013, and his Test cricket temperament would certainly be rusty. In his previous match, he represented Uttar Pradesh against Railways, and did not get to bat largely due to some superb batting by Arindam Ghosh and Mahesh Rawat.

Raina’s Test career

Raina’s career in Tests started out brilliantly. He scored a century against the Sri Lankans in Colombo on his debut, and his innings was praised by the great Sachin Tendulkar himself. However, to be fair to Raina’s critics, Sri Lanka had scored 642 in that match, while India had posted 702 in reply. As many as five batsman scored centuries, and two batsman scored double centuries (Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara). It wouldn’t be unfair to say that it was a batting pitch.

After that knock, Raina never really got going in the longer format of the game. Despite having played just 17 matches, Raina accumulated as many as six ducks. Above all his love affair with short-pitch bowling is known to everyone. And if Raina will be selected in the playing eleven in Australia, Mitchell Johnson and co would certainly push him on the back-foot.

To be fair to Raina, he isn’t the same batsman or the person that he was a few years ago. He has definitely matured as a cricketer, and who knows, maybe his second stint in Test cricket sees him flourish.

Indian batsman in Australia – looking back

When India last went on a tour of Australia, they were given a battering. Despite the presence of big batting legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, India were handed a 4-0 defeat. There were moments of resistance, but the batting fell flat against the pace and bounce generated by the Aussie bowlers.

Virat Kohli had scored the only hundred by an Indian batsman (116 in the final Test). It was his first hundred in Test cricket, and his reaction after scoring it was definitely a sight to behold.

On this tour, India will lack the experience of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman, and they will be up against a bowling attack wounded severely in the two Tests against Pakistan in UAE. Considering these factors, the tour to Australia seems bleak for the Indian batsmen.

ICC World Cup 2015 – a look into the conditions

There is no doubt about the fact that Raina will play an important role for India in the upcoming ICC World Cup 2015 which will be held in Australia and New Zealand. There is a possibiltiy that the selectors have included Raina in the Test series, just to habituate him to the Australian conditions. In the absence of Dhoni, (who is injured) Raina may also be required to play a leadership role alongside Virat Kohli.

(Sameer Jha is a reporter at CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter at @SameerJha_)