Suresh Raina Biography

Full Name  : Suresh Kumar Raina 

Date of Birth  : 27th November 1986

Place of Birth : Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 

Nick Name  : Sanu 

Batting Style  : Left-Handed 

Bowling Style : Right Arm Off Break 

Role  : Batsman 

Test Debut (cap 265): 26th July 2010 v Sri Lanka 

ODI Debut (cap 159) : 30th July 2005 v Sri Lanka 

Suresh Kumar Raina is an Indian cricketer from Gaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.  Suresh Raina  family comes from a town of Rainawari, in Jammu & Kashmir. Raina has been a member of the Indian cricket team for ODIs since July 2008, and was included in the Test squad in early 2006, but did not make his debut until July 2010. Domestically, he plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy and Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy.  Suresh Raina is a left-handed batsman and an occasional off spinner.

Personal Life

Suresh Raina comes from a wealthy business Kashmiri Pandit family who have origins in the Rainawari quarter of Srinagar, a city in the Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir. Raina decided to take up cricket seriously in 1999, and moved from his city Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, UP (near New Delhi) to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to attend the specialist government Sports College. Suresh Raina rose to become the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s came to prominence amongst Indian selectors in 2002, when he was selected at the age of 15 and a half years for the U-19 tour to England, where he made a pair of half-centuries in the U-19 Test matches. Suresh Raina toured Sri Lanka later that year with the U-17 team.  Suresh Raina made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam in February 2003 at the age of 16, but did not play another match until the following season. In late 2003, he toured Pakistan for the U-19 Asian ODI Championship before being selected for the 2004 U-19 World Cup, where he scored three half centuries, including a 90 scored off only 38 balls.  Suresh Raina was then awarded a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy and in early 2005, he made his first-class limited overs debut, and scored 645 runs that season at an average of 53.75.  Suresh Raina  was selected to participate in the Challenger Series in early 2005,and after injury to Sachin Tendulkar and suspension to captain Sourav Ganguly, Raina was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka.

Career

Early International Career 

Raina bowling in the nets.Raina had a difficult start to his international career, being dismissed first ball by Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. After scoring 37 runs in the tournament at an average of 12.33, and with the return of Ganguly from suspension, Raina was omitted from the starting XI for the tour of Zimbabwe. With Ganguly being sacked after a row with Indian coach Greg Chappell and Mohammed Kaif injured, Raina played in five of the matches against Sri Lanka in India, mostly as a supersub, and made a cameo 39 not out to guide the team to victory in the fourth ODI.  Suresh Raina was again watching from the sidelines in the series against South Africa after Kaif's return and Gautam Gambhir forced his entry into the team with a century, but got another chance to become a regular member of the Indian middle order during the 2010 tour of Pakistan, after vice-captain Virender Sehwag returned home injured.  Suresh Raina  was only required to bat in one match, in which he helped guide the latter part of the successful run chase in the fourth ODI.

Upon his return to India, he was called up to the Test squad, at the expense of former captain Ganguly, although he did not play in the Test series against England.  Suresh Raina earned his first man of the match award in the subsequent ODI series after scoring an unbeaten 81* in a successful run-chase at Faridabad. After scoring two more half-centuries in the series at an average of 48, Raina was awarded a BCCI C-grade contract. Suresh Raina was selected for both squads for the tour to the West Indies, but did not make his Test debut.

After a poor run in the Malaysia Tri-Series in September and in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, Raina was relegated to the bench midway through the ODI tour of South Africa. This spread to the Test team, where he was dropped from the squad altogether despite the injury to Yuvraj Singh, with Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik being recalled to the team. In January 2008, Raina was recalled to the team and toured Australia for a limited overs campaign, but did not play in any of India's 10 ODIs or the one-off T20 international.

After a strong IPL season in 2008, Raina broke back into the XI for a triangular ODI tournament in Bangladesh when senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar was rested from the competition.

On 25 June 2008, he scored his maiden hundred against Hong Kong during the 2008 Asia Cup.  Suresh Raina  66 balls hundred was at the time, the second fastest century in Indian ODI history. Suresh Raina scored 84 of 69 against Pakistan and 116 of 107 against Bangladesh, in next two matches. Hence, he won man of the match award successively three times.Since then, Raina has been a member of India's full-strength ODI and T20 team.

2010 World Twenty20

During the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies, Raina was criticised for a perceived weakness against the short ball. With his 101 from 60 balls with five sixes and nine fours in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 against South Africa on 2 May 2010, he became the third player to score a Twenty20 international century after the West Indies' Chris Gayle and New Zealand's Brendon McCullum.  Suresh Raina then missed the ODI series in the West Indies because of injury. In January 2010, Raina scored 106 from 115 balls in the final of the triangular ODI tournament against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh.  Suresh Raina innings took India to 245 after they collapsed to 5/60, but it was not enough to save the match.

2010 South Africa tour of IndiaIn South Africa's tour of India in 2010, Raina was called in the squad for the second test, but was not selected in the playing XI.  Suresh Raina captained the Indian team for the Tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe as all the other first-choice players were rested from the tournament. India lost the first match under his captaincy against Zimbabwe by six wickets, but won the next match against Sri Lanka. The Indians then lost their remaining two matches and did not make the final.

2010 tour of Sri LankaRaina was then brought into the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in July and August 2010.  Suresh Raina made his debut in the Second Test after Yuvraj Singh was ill. Sri Lanka made 4/700 declared and India were in trouble at 4/241 when Raina came in to join Sachin Tendulkar. Raina went on to reach a century on debut as the pair put on a double century partnership. Yuvraj recovered in time for the Third Test but the selectors opted to retain Raina. However, poor form throughout 2010-2011, including a failure to make any impact on the Centurion Test which South Africa won by an innings, he was dropped in favour of rookie Cheteshwar Pujara for the remainder of the series, in which India battled back to draw 1-1.

2011 Cricket World Cup

Suresh Raina was on the bench through the first half of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni went with the in-form Yusuf Pathan. This remained so until the group game against West Indies, which he started due to an injury to Virender Sehwag.  Suresh Raina started against defending champions Australia in the quarter-finals as Dhoni made a strategic change, omitting Yusuf Pathan in favour of Raina. Raina responded by assisting Yuvraj Singh in a successful run chase through high pressure, making 34 from 28 balls to carry India to victory. In the semi-final against Pakistan, he batted with tailenders and scored 36 runs without which India would have been hard pressed to bowl Pakistan out, as they ultimately did.  Suresh Raina also fielded well in this game, taking the catch which completed Younis Khan's dismissal of Yuvraj's over.  Suresh Raina took another catch in the final against Sri Lanka, and did not have to bat.

2011 tour of the West IndiesAfter the World Cup Raina took over as captain of the ODI side for the tour of the West Indies after Dhoni opted to rest and Gambhir was injured. India won the series, but Raina averaged just 16.4. In the Test matches he scored 232 runs at the average of 46.4 making crucial fifties in each Test.

2011 tour of England.  Suresh Raina was selected for the England tour in July. There was a lot of debate whether who should play in first test at Lord's, Yuvraj or Raina. But a century in a practice match against Somerset sealed a place for him in the playing eleven. Aside from a half-century in the first Test at Lord's, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings.  Suresh Raina struggled against short bowling and in the final Test was out for a 29-ball duck, the longest in India's Test history.

Raina running through a poor form in the Test series especially in the last match made some impact in the 5 match-ODI series though the team was unable to secure a win at all. Suresh Raina top-scored in a rain-affected game at the Lord's scoring a commendable 84 from 111 balls.

Indian Premier League

Suresh Raina was signed by the Chennai Super Kings for $650,000 for the first three years of the tournament.

Raina made significant contributions in the first edition of the tournament to compensate the Chennai Super Kings over the losses of key players in Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram. Suresh Raina played a vital MOTM performance in the last league fixture to give Chennai Super Kings the win they required to qualify for the semi-finals.Ultimately the Super Kings finished as the runners-up of the league with Raina scoring the most runs for them.

Raina found form in the 2009 IPL scoring 434 runs off the 14 games he had played at a strike rate over 140.00. Suresh Raina made a sensational 98 runs from 55 balls against the Rajasthan Royals at Centurion. Suresh Raina was the fourth leading-run getter of the tournament and second for the Super kings behind Orange-cap holder Matthew Hayden.Raina also became the fifth economical bowler of the tournament taking 7 wickets in all.

Raina's consistent batting throughout the series won him applause and became the all-time run-getter of the league surpassing Australian legend Adam Gilchrist halfway down the tournament. Suresh Raina  also captained the Super Kings for three matches in skipper Dhoni's absence and took some sensational catches in the field. Suresh Raina  scored 520 runs in all,making him the third highest-run getter of the series and the first for Chennai. Suresh Raina also was awarded the "best fielder award" by the BCCI ahead of the finals. Suresh Raina played a vital half-century which turned the final to Chennai's tide who ultimately went on to become the champions beating the Mumbai Indians.

At the end of the season,Raina set the record for scoring the most no. of runs in the tournament and also taking the most no. of catches, two records that are still to be broken.Raina also had hit the second maximum no. of sixes behind Adam Gilchrist in the three editions of the league. Suresh Raina was retained by the Super Kings for the 2011 Indian Premier League along with Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel and skipper Dhoni.

Achievements

Test Centuries

1 120 228 12 2  Sri Lanka Colombo 26 July 2010 Drawn 

ODI Centuries

1 101 68 7 5  Hong Kong Karachi 25 June 2008 Won 

2 116* 107 11 3  Bangladesh Karachi 28 June 2008 Won 

3 106 115 10 1  Sri Lanka Dhaka 13 Jan 2010 Lost 

T20  Centuries

1 101 60 9 5  South Africa Gros Islet 2 May 2010 Won