Suresh Raina was once India’s middle order mainstay and played some match winning knocks for the country but it isn’t the case now. For a long time now he has been struggling to book a spot in the India team. Raina who last played for India in T20’s against England early this year is currently playing in the All India Buchi Babu Invitation tournament organized by the Tamil Nadu cricket association.
Raina is leading the Uttar Pradesh team playing in the tournament. In the first match Raina’s road to come back took an early jitter as he failed miserably scoring just 16 runs in 14 balls. He came in to bat at number four position with his team at 71/2. But he couldn’t make the most of this opportunity as he played one straight into the bowler’s hands. Although his team won the match by 54 runs, he would be disappointed by his personal performance and will be looking forward to improve in the next game.
Raina was in the headlines recently, as reports suggested that his ouster from the team was because he failed the ‘Yo-Yo’ test along with fellow southpaw Yuvraj Singh. Raina has been training hard and sweating it out to come back to shape as he wishes to play in the 2019 World Cup. In a recent interview, he said he would like to play in the next 50 overs World cup.
Even Sachin Tendulkar took some time out and helped Raina in the nets. Raina made his international ODI in 2005 against Sri Lanka. At that time Sachin had already become the “Megastar” of Indian cricket, and Raina has been very fortunate to play alongside the greatest batsman of all time.
Raina was also a part of the Indian squad which won the 2011 cricket World Cup.