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Former India captain Rahul Dravid lauded the recently-retired Suresh Raina, calling him a full ‘team-man’ who left the whole lot on the cricket subject. Raina, who made his India debut beneath Dravid’s captaincy in 2005 on the age of 19, introduced his retirement from worldwide cricket on Saturday, marking the top of a close to 15-year-long profession. Dravid defined the impression Raina that left behind and recalled how he had a feeling the teen from Ghaziabad was going to be an vital participant for India.
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“Suresh Raina was one of those really young and exciting talents who’ve come through the Indian system. Sort of in the middle of the 2000s, 2004-05, when you’re playing Under19 cricket, doing exceptionally well and you could see even at that time that Suresh was going to be a very important player for India,” Dravid mentioned on a video posted by the BCCI.
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“That’s really how it played out in the last decade and a half. A lot of the success that India has had in white-ball cricket, lot of the great moments, great memories that India has had over the last so many years, Suresh has been a really big part of them. I think his contribution to Indian cricket, especially in the white-ball game has been fantastic.”
Raina performed 226 ODIs for India, scoring 5615 runs at a median of 35.31. He was the primary Indian batsman to attain a century in all three codecs of the sport. He even captained India in a few matches in MS Dhoni’s absence however Raina’s largest spotlight on his CV can be the truth that he was a part of India’s squad when the staff received the 2011 World Cup and the Champions Trophy two years later in England.
“He’s a World Cup winner; he’s a Champions Trophy winner and just the fact that he contributed so much on the field. I mean just his energy, the enthusiasm he brought, the way he raised the standard of fielding,” Dravid added.
Dravid felt Raina’s numbers could have been higher had he batted greater up the order for India. During his profession, Raina batted majorly at No. 5 or 6, enjoying 82 and 62 ODIs from these positions respectively. At No. 5, Raina has scored 2448 runs at a median of 35.48 and 1717 at No. 6 averaging 34.84. He’s batted at No. three and four for a mixed 37 innings, scoring 1221 runs.
“It was one thing you felt that Suresh did all the difficult things for India – batting lower down the order when his numbers could have been a lot better if he’d batted higher up in the order,” Dravid mentioned. “It has reflected in the success he’s had for CSK in the IPL (5368 runs from 193 matches – IPL’s second-highest run-getter) where he bats at No. 3 and has an absolutely phenomenal record. He’s one of the phenomenal players of the IPL in the last decade or so.”
Dravid weighed on Raina as utility participant, who could do a little bit of the whole lot. That mentioned, Raina’s Test profession could by no means attain the heights his limited-overs profession did regardless of scoring a hundred on debut towards Sri Lanka. He ended up enjoying simply 18 Tests with 768 runs, however so far as his ODI profession is worried, which Dravid referred to as ‘fantastic’, Raina retired as certainly one of India’s most cherished cricketers.
“For India, for the most part of his career, he batted lower down, fielded at difficult positions, bowled some handy overs and always brought a lot to the team. Someone I will think of a terrific team-man, who always gave his best and brought some great energy to the game and was a very skilful batter,” Dravid mentioned.
“I guess he couldn’t replicate the success of a debut hundred and couldn’t build on that in his Test career. But be that as it may, I think his contribution in one-day cricket in India is fantastic. He was part of a very successful Indian one-day team.”
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