Tag Player Profile

If you want me to define this 20 year old Indian ODI cricketer for you, I'll say - Raina is one of the best fielder I have seen in at least 10 years of cricket following but he's a over-enthusiastic batsman. And if you want to know more about this latest inclusion into the Indian ODI squad for the Pakistan series, read on...

Suresh Kumar Raina is another under-19 player after Yuvraj singh, Mohammad Kaif, Agit Agarkar and R P Singh already cementing their place into the India team. He is a flashy batsmen, very much like the Yuvraj we had when he came into international cricket some 4 years ago. Raina has shots for nearly every ball(I have seen him hit yorkers to fine leg boundary by moving towards his off stump) but lacks in maturity. He seems to be failing in building an innings, and tries to hit every ball.

Raina is the youngest in his family with five kids but was lucky to be born and brought up in Gaziabad in Uttar Pradesh as the goverment there encourages the young boys to take sports seriously by giving the admissions and scholarships in goverment colleges. Although Rania was homesick kid in his early days, he managed to controll his emotions when he joined the Lucknow sports college in 1999.

One thing that people don't really know about Suresh Raina is he himself is a big fan of tennis sensation Maria Sharapova - BOTH HER LOOKS AND GAME and loves to listen Jagjit Singh.

But the best thing about Suresh Raina is his fielding. He has played only 8 ODI's so far and has got at least 5 run outs to his credit. He normally fields at short square leg, as Point(Yuvraj) and covers(Kaif) are already occupied. He looks very similar in his attitude as Md. Kaif - running all around the wicket while fielding but where he beats Yuvraj and Kaif is his ability to hit the stumps. We all cricket lovers know that hitting the wickets when only one stump to aim at is very tough, Suresh Raina will surprise you with his accuracy.

Although he is yet to make great scores in international cricket but has played one very good innings against Srilanka of 39 when he made a good partnership with Y Venugopal Rao to win the match. Then Rahul Dravid had said - "We have seen the future of Indian Batting". He has also been in very good form in Ranji matches as he made 72 against mighty Mumbai on 20th January and latest being 90 against Bengal in the Ranji finals on 29th of January.

One last thing, he can also bowl off spinners but its his enthusiastic batting and brilliant fielding that has caught the liking of Indian captain Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell.

Come January 2008 and Suresh Raina has earned another recall into Indian squad for the tri-series in Australia after two highly successful Ranji seasons. It remains to be seen how much Raina has learned in terms of keeping his wicket intact & playing shots when needed - but his fielding skills must come in handy for Dhoni and his boys..