In the last few years, Suresh Raina had ups and downs international career. Recently, he has claimed that he didn’t expect to be dropped from the national squad without getting enough chances.
After making his international debut in July 2005, Suresh Raina has a long successful international career. For a decent time, he was India’s one of the essential cricketers. He played some modest roles for India to win the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.
However, at present, the 32-year-old is struggling to find his place in the national squad. In the last year, he returned to the national team in February after one year of waiting. He had the wonderful tour in South Africa where he won a Player of the Match award in a T20I game.
Later, he continued the T20I form in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy and the Ireland tour too. Those performances finally helped him to return to the ODI squad and made his ODI comeback after almost three years during the England tour. Though he didn’t get enough chances in that tour, the selectors haven’t shown any further interest on him since that England tour.
Suresh Raina believes that he was doing fairly well for the national team, but he hasn’t got enough opportunity before getting dropped. However, he doesn’t blame anyone, rather than he is focusing on himself.
Suresh Raina recently told Times Now, “Definitely. I was surely not expecting to be dropped because I got limited matches to play and during those matches, I did fairly well. But you know, you can’t really blame anyone for these things. I work hard, focus on my form & fitness every day. I am continuing to do my job.”
Who wouldn’t want to lift the World Cup twice
Suresh Raina further added that he had always given his best for every team. The left-handed batsman is looking forward to the upcoming IPL season. The 2011 World Cup-winner is still hungry to taste another World Cup success.
He said, “I have always given my best to the team I play for, be it national, domestic or IPL. And, I’ll continue to do so during any upcoming matches too, irrespective of the circumstance. But yes, who wouldn’t want to lift the World Cup twice (laughs).”
Suresh Raina will begin the IPL 2019 as the most run-scorer in IPL history. Though it is very tough for him to earn an opportunity for the World Cup squad, the consistent top performances in the IPL 2019 can open the new door for him.