Recently, in the first ODI against England, Suresh Kumar Raina crossed the fairly significant milestone of 3000 runs in One Day Internationals. Although his ODI career has been nowhere as up and down as his Test career, he hasn't had a smooth run in the ODI's as well. He started his career pretty well, but lost his way in between, during the Greg Chappell's reign. From 2008 onwards, he has been a permanent member of the ODI squad.
Before the 2011 WC, Raina again lost a bit of form, which led him to play only 4 matches in the big event..
Raina's average is not too impressive at 35.51, but it must be remembered that almost 80 percent of his innings have come while batting at number 5 or lower. And at that position, his strike rate and average are very good. In fact since 2008, the only man who batting at Number 5 or lower, who has a better average and strike rate is Mr Cool, MS Dhoni..
One of the things that make Raina such a good lower order player is that he doesn't take much of a time to settle in. Whenever there is a vacancy higher up the order, Suresh Raina deserves to have a shot at it. His proficiency in the ODI format and his stats suggest that he would do a pretty good job at that position.
Moving to Suresh Raina's test career, he hasn't tasted much of a success in this format of the game. Though he had played just 15 matches as of now, but his record is far from being impressive. He averages a meagre 29.5 in test matches. And his only century coming up in his debut match against Sri Lanka. Unlike his miserable debut in ODI's, where he was dismissed first ball by Mutthiah Muralitharan , he started promisingly in test cricket. But hasn't reached any height in this format.
After 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. He score 232 runs at an average of 46.4 making crucial fifties in each Test.
But in England, aside from the half century in the first test, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings. He struggled against the short bowling and made a 29-ball duck in the final test, the longest in India's Test history.
He is much more classy played than his record suggests. We hope to see him retain his place in the Test squad and become a permanent member in all three formats of the game.
Before the 2011 WC, Raina again lost a bit of form, which led him to play only 4 matches in the big event..
Raina's average is not too impressive at 35.51, but it must be remembered that almost 80 percent of his innings have come while batting at number 5 or lower. And at that position, his strike rate and average are very good. In fact since 2008, the only man who batting at Number 5 or lower, who has a better average and strike rate is Mr Cool, MS Dhoni..
One of the things that make Raina such a good lower order player is that he doesn't take much of a time to settle in. Whenever there is a vacancy higher up the order, Suresh Raina deserves to have a shot at it. His proficiency in the ODI format and his stats suggest that he would do a pretty good job at that position.
Moving to Suresh Raina's test career, he hasn't tasted much of a success in this format of the game. Though he had played just 15 matches as of now, but his record is far from being impressive. He averages a meagre 29.5 in test matches. And his only century coming up in his debut match against Sri Lanka. Unlike his miserable debut in ODI's, where he was dismissed first ball by Mutthiah Muralitharan , he started promisingly in test cricket. But hasn't reached any height in this format.
After 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. He score 232 runs at an average of 46.4 making crucial fifties in each Test.
But in England, aside from the half century in the first test, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings. He struggled against the short bowling and made a 29-ball duck in the final test, the longest in India's Test history.
He is much more classy played than his record suggests. We hope to see him retain his place in the Test squad and become a permanent member in all three formats of the game.
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