Published: Jun 20, 2011, 11:34 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 26, 2014, 01:23 PM (IST)
By Venkat Balantrapu
Suresh Raina came into the Indian team with high expectations – a talent and multi-skilled player. A player with the potential to turnaround a match with his ability to hit long and hard, chip in with a few productive overs and be world class as a fielder. In that respect he was expected to follow in the footsteps of another talented left-hander, Yuvraj Singh.
Despite getting branded as an overs-limit specialist, Raina distinguished himself quickly by cracking a hundred on his Test debut. In the recent World Cup, he upstaged Yusuf Pathan to cement his place in the do-or-die matches later in the tournament. With players like Virat Kohli and Yuvraj justifying their inclusions in the playing eleven, Raina had to bide his time. And when he finally got his chance, he grabbed it gleefully. His unbeaten knocks of 34 and 36 against Australia and Pakistan respectively stand out as among the best World Cup by an Indian to power the team into the knockout stages.
Then coach of the then Indian team, Gary Kirsten, put things in perspective: “He pretty much won the World Cup for us with that knock against the Australians in the quarter-finals. He had just played one game and then he went on and played the most responsible, mature knock and won us the game. For me, that was really a combination of years of making mistakes but learning along the way.”
However, there is a question mark over Raina’s technique against short-pitched balls. And unless that flaw is corrected, the left-hander cannot hope to command a place in the Indian Test team.
Though his first stint as Team India ODI skipper on a tour to Zimbabwe proved disastrous, he led a young brigade to a 3-2 win in the ODI series against the West Indies. However, his batting has been a let down in the Caribbean, more often than not succumbing to poor shot selection. Raina and Rohit Sharma carried a huge responsibility on their shoulders to prop an inexperienced batting line-up, but the skipper’s failure placed a heavy burden on Rohit, who rose to the occasion by emerging as man of the series.
Raina’s overall international record is quite mediocre as he scored just two half centuries from seven Tests after his sparkling debut, and in 119 ODIs he has three hundreds and a batting average of just 34.
Heavyweights like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman are on the threshold of bidding their international careers adieu. Their exits will leave a vacuum in the Indian middle order. It’s imperative that someone like Raina, who has been with the Indian team for around six yeas now, to raise the bar and translate his potential into consistent performances.
(Venkat Balantrapu works in senior insurance management in Tanzania. He has deep passion for cricket and has played the game at various levels in India, and also in some of the African countries for over a period of two decades. Venkat writes on the game with the same passion for various websites and magazines)
