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SURESH RAINA

“Dhoni finishes off in style. A magnificent strike into the crowd! India lift the World Cup after 28 years!” This statement wouldn’t have been possible if those two crucial knocks of 34* and 36* against Australia and Pakistan respectively would have not come from the bat of the man who got the opportunity to play directly into the knock-outs.

INTERNATIONAL RUN–

Suresh Raina who was born on 27 November 1986 in Muradnagar a place in Uttar Pradesh, is a Kashmiri Pandit. He made his International Debut in the year 2005. But as many players take some time to get used to International Cricket he also did the same. He couldn’t make a remark in debut series. But as time progressed he became better and better. But the special day came for him on 25th June 2008, as he registered his maiden ODI ton against HONG KONG. Since then he has never looked back and has done a phenomenal job for TEAM INDIA.

Suresh Raina made his T-20 a year after his ODI debut i.e. in 2006 against South Africa. Raina gave fine performances against big teams like New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka in the coming years. Due to excellent form and brilliant performances he earned maiden call for “toughest format” i.e. Test Cricket in the year 2010. Since the first innings, he showed that what class of player he is and brought up his maiden test ton in the debut innings against Sri Lanka. He “sailed the ship” along with Sachin Tendulkar to win the test match. Since then he became a regular face in the Indian Cricket Team.

Suresh Rana played brilliant knocks against “England” when they came to India in the early 2013 and later when India toured to England he played brilliantly and also scored a ton in the series which helped India to win the series. He was awarded MOS on both occasions.

WORLD CUPS-

Suresh Raina was selected for the 2011 world cup, but he did not get many chances during the group stage. But Coach Gary Kirsten had told him to be prepared for the end part of the tournament. He got his chances during the knock-out stages and he converted them completely. Sailed the ship for India against Australia in the Quater Final and then played his one of the most crucial knocks in the Semi-Final game against Pakistan and which led India to the final. In the final Gambhir and Dhoni played the best knocks and India lifted the Cup after 28 years.

Till the World Cup 2015, he was a more matured cricketer and a senior in the team as well. In the first game of WORLD CUP 2015, he scored 74 quick runs and did a brilliant partnership with Virat Kohli. But the big moment came when he scored a century against Zimbabwe where the team was struggling to win the match. He did a brilliant partnership with Dhoni and India reached into the semis.

THE IPL SHOW-

Suresh Raina was signed by Chennai Super Kings in 2008. Since then he has been a regular face in the squad. in fact, he missed his first IPL game in 2016. He has been leading run-scorer in the history of IPL. In IPL he has performed so well that he is called MR.IPL. He has shown consistency in every season of IPL match after match, year after year.

But set the stage on fire when he scored 87 off just 25 deliveries against KXIP and took the team total to 100 inside 6 overs before he got run-out.

Suresh Raina scored his maiden IPL ton in 2013 and coincidently on the same day in the year 2010 he scored maiden T-20 hundred for India. For the 2016 & 2017 edition, he played for Gujarat Lions where he was the captain. He returned back to CSK in the year 2018.