Uttar Pradesh captain Suresh Raina who has been recently selected for the first three ODIs of New Zealand series has been sidelined from Ranji Trophy opener as he was down with a fever.
The Southpaw has not come to bat against Madhya Pradesh in their season opener of 2016/17 Ranji Trophy as he was hit by fever during Day 2 of the match. The two teams are currently playing their first Ranji match of the domestic season at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad as Raina has been taken off the field and at around 3:30 PM he left the ground with his teammate Praveen Kumar who is not playing in the match.
The 29-year old has reportedly gone back to Delhi on Saturday as he is in no condition to feature in the game any further.
Madhya Pradesh who had opted to bat first in the match have scored a massive 465 in their first innings thanks to an unbeaten 216 from Harpreet Singh Bhatia. He has shared a 155-run stand for the 8th wicket with Ankit Sharma (61) as he tired the UP team bowlers.
Coming into bat with a massive total to the trail, UP batsmen could not cope up with the pressure without their star player Suresh Raina as they managed just 176 runs in their first innings as UP bowlers Gaurav Yadav and Ishwar Pandey picked 4 and 3 wickets respectively.
Suresh Raina, however, will be available for Indian ODI series against New Zealand as he will ample time to recover in time for the series. The opportunity will be very crucial for Suresh Raina as he is keen to make the most out of it.
The 29-year old has last played for India in ODI format last year in South Africa series after which he was dropped from the ODI squad. His poor performances for Team India in T20 format has not helped his case either as he was one more opportunity by MS Dhoni. He still has seven days to recover as the first ODI against New Zealand is set to be played on 16th October.