Suresh Raina is arguably one of the best lower middle order batsman that India had over the past decade. However with youngsters making inroads to Team India via IPL, Suresh Raina’s place in the team is being questioned by many across the nation.
Raina who has played many match winning innings for India in the past has made his presence felt especially in the limited overs format but the player has seen a huge dip in form while representing India in 2016.
The southpaw played a match winning innings against Australia in the 3rd T20I as India won the series 3-0. Raina, however, has lost his touch after that as he managed to make only 130 runs in 10 outings which include Asia Cup, T20 World Cup and a home series against Sri Lanka.
Despite having a very good IPL, the place for Raina in current Indian team is not secure especially with KL Rahul playing at a whole new level in Zimbabwe series.
However, Raina remains confident to make a comeback and reclaim his spot in Indian national team.
“You may call whatever you want – whether I was rested or dropped (for the Zimbabwe trip). One-day, T20 or Test matches, I will strive to get back my place in the Indian teams,” Suresh Raina said on his selection for Zimbabwe tour.
The Indian middle order has failed miserably during the course of 2016 as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli scored the bulk of the runs with Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni playing handy knocks at times. With the middle order looking so penetrable, BCCI has looked for new players who have performed well in IPL and has given a chance to them.
KL Rahul has made the most of the opportunity to seize his place in Team India’s limited overs team as he piled up 197 runs in 3 ODIs after getting out only once in the process.
This means there is an in-form KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane and captain MS Dhoni for the three available middle order places in Team India with Ravindra Jadeja playing as an all-rounder at No.7. The path gets only tougher for Suresh Raina as the race will get tougher will lot of young talented youngsters looking to grab the place in Team India.
The likes of Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu, Karun Nair are already in contention for the place which would mean Suresh Raina need to play his skin out in the upcoming domestic season and hope some of the above-mentioned players fail to play to their potential which would lead to his comeback into Team India.
But with so many players fighting for the places in Team India, the future seems very bleak for the southpaw as a new domestic season set to start in about three months.