Suresh Raina is an Indian professional cricketer who has established himself as a key player in the game’s limited-over formats. He was a member of the Gujarat Lions of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He currently plays for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and has previously spent eight seasons with the franchise. For his original IPL squad, CSK, he has never lost a play. He is an outstanding T20 player, as shown by his incredible consistency in the IPL, where he scored the most runs in the competition’s history. As a result, even when he is not in the Indian ODI or Test squads, he is regularly called to improve the Indian T20 line. His success in Test and ODI formats, on the other hand, has been uneven to say the least. Despite receiving recognition early in his career for his excellent domestic results, he has been unable to duplicate that impact on a global scale. Nonetheless, he has proven his worth as a lower-middle order batsman, a great goalkeeper, and an occasional bowler on various occasions, and he played a key role in India’s second World Cup victory in 2011.
Childhood and Puberty
Suresh Raina was born in Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, where his father, retired military officer Trilok Chand, had moved. His father is a Kashmiri Pandit from Rainawari in Jammu & Kashmir, and his mother is from Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh.
Dinesh Raina, Naresh Raina, and Mukesh Raina are his three older brothers, and Renu is his older sister. Dinesh, Suresh’s eight-year-old brother, is a schoolteacher.
Career In Domestic
Suresh Raina wanted to concentrate on cricket at the age of 14 and moved to Lucknow to attend Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, a specialist government college. By 2002, he was captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16 side, which attracted the attention of national selectors, who selected the 15-year-old boy to England’s U-19 team.
As a member of the U-19 side, he hit a pair of half-centuries and was chosen for the U-17 team’s tour of Sri Lanka in late 2002. At the age of 16, he made his Ranji Trophy debut against Assam in February 2003, playing just one match.
In late 2003, he was appointed to the U-19 squad for the Asian ODI Championship in Pakistan, as well as the 2004 U-19 World Cup, where he scored three half-centuries. His excellent success won him a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to study at the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide.
In the Ranji Trophy one-day tournament in January 2005, he made his List A debut against Madhya Pradesh and scored 94 on debut in the Deodhar Trophy, scoring 645 runs in 15 matches. In March, he was picked for the Board President’s XI against Pakistan in Dharmasala, and in April, he scored 865 runs in 12 matches for Astley & Tyldesley Cricket Club in the Lancashire League.
Career
On July 29, 2005, Ursh Raina made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka, but he was dismissed for a first-ball duck by a Muttiah Muralidaran doosra. Despite showing promise in First Class cricket, he disappointed in 2006, scoring just 27.77 in 26 One-Day Internationals.
After a bad showing in the ODI series against South Africa, he was dropped from the squad at the end of 2006. In the 2008 IPL, he was purchased for $650k by Chennai Super Kings and finished with 421 runs, including three fifties.
His T20 performances were noted, and he was recalled to the Indian team for the 2008 Asia Cup, where he played admirably. This time, he took advantage of the chance to solidify his place on the roster, despite the fact that he had to settle for lower-order due to the deep top-order lineup.
He was named into the Indian Test team for the second Test during South Africa’s tour to India in 2010 due to his impressive success in limited-over matches. Despite not being included in the playing XI for that match, he scored a century on his debut against Sri Lanka on July 26, 2010.
After scoring 28 in 16 Tests, his vulnerability against short deliveries was revealed during the England Test series in 2011. He was dropped from the Test squad. His ability to play fast knocks and flawless fielding, on the other hand, made him a significant part of the ODI and T20 teams.
In the World Cup 2011 quarter-final and semi-final, he scored 34 not out against Australia and 36 not out against Pakistan, which were critical for India’s title victory. He was also praised for his match-winning innings against Sri Lanka in 2012 and England in 2013, in which he scored four consecutive half-centuries.
With his steady success in the IPL, he has scored over 400 runs in each season since 2014, followed by 374, 399, and 442 runs in the following three years. He is the IPL’s top run scorer and has a century to his credit, which he scored against Punjab in 2013.
In November 2013, he struggled to bat well against the West Indies, but he made up for it with his fielding and part-time bowling. Although he was able to secure a place in the Indian team for the tours to South Africa and New Zealand, his bad results contributed to his omission from the Asia Cup squad.
Following his IPL performance, he was recalled to the squad for the 2014 Bangladesh tour, where he captained India to a series victory after skipper M.S. Dhoni was resting. He then went on to score a match-changing 75-ball century in England, which set the tone for India’s 3-1 series victory.
He played well in the 2015 World Cup, but was cut from the ODI squad after a bad result against South Africa in October 2015. He was appointed captain of the Gujarat Lions team after CSK’s suspension.
Achievements & Awards
Suresh Raina is the first Indian batsman to cross the century mark in any of the game’s three formats.
With 4540 runs, he is the highest run scorer in the IPL and the only player to score over 400 runs in each of the last seven seasons.