After working in the shadows of the Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni almost all his life, Suresh Raina seemed to have learnt a lot from him as he has shown in the Indian Premier League season.
Suresh Raina, who played 8 seasons of the IPL before the current one for the Chennai Super Kings has always been under the captaincy of MS Dhoni and has been known as a team man right from the start of his cricketing career.
He is now showing decent captaincy qualities as he has taken his new IPL franchise Gujarat Lions to the top of the table after 5 games.
They have now won 4 out of their 5 games and have lost only one game at home to SRH and are second in the table level on points with KKR.
The likes of Dwayne Bravo and Brendon McCullum have no doubt helped the left handed batsman in his captaincy on the field but the 29-year old has credited his wife for his great run in the current domestic season.
Talking to the official IPL site, Raina revealed that he feels different after his marriage and said that his wife Priyanka has helped him become a better cricketer.
I think I have improved a lot as a person after my marriage. I have become very calm and responsible,” he said in the interview.
The hard-hitting batsman has never missed a single IPL game in all its season but is set to miss a few this campaign as he is expected to meet his wife in Netherlands for the birth of his first child.
The pair who are known to be childhood friends tied the knot last April and have been active on various social media accounts ever since.
Raina was also asked about problems he might be facing because of the IPL.
He was asked if he was finding enough time to spend with his better half during the busy cricketing season and the skipper said that he has hardly had any problems with it and also revealed that his wife encourages him to spend time with his team-mates.
“She encourages me to spend more time with my teammates even if that means I don’t have enough time left for her. Her support and understanding has given me more opportunities to form a bond with this new team, understand my players and gel them together,” Raina said.
Raina also spoke about his long lost friend in crime Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
This is the first season in the IPL that the duo have dawned different colors and Raina revealed that he learnt a lot from MSD during his time under his captaincy.
He revealed that he tried to learn everything he could from the skipper and praised him for his cool head under pressure.
“I have spent a lot of time with MS over the last 10-15 years and I have seen how he goes about his job as a captain before and during a game. I keep talking to him and asking him questions in the field, standing at slip or point as to what he is thinking and why he made a particular move. He is so calm under pressure,” Raina said.
He also reserved praise for people who helped him in domestic cricket.
Raina made his ODI debut in 2005 under skipper Rahul Dravid and started his domestic career in the Ranji Trophy under Mohammad Kaif.
The 29-year old revealed that both these players helped him a lot during the initial stages of cricketing life and thanked them for their support.
“At a very young age I played with Rahul (Dravid) bhai and Kaif and I gathered a lot from these men,” Raina added.