India Cricket Legends – Suresh Raina International Career:

Former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina played for the country at the highest level. During the absence of the primary captain, he also filled in as stand-in captain for the Indian men’s national cricket team. He participated in the domestic cricket circuit for Uttar Pradesh (UP).

He is a forceful middle-order left-handed batter who occasionally bowls off-spin. The second-youngest player to ever captain India, he is a footballer. He served as vice-captain of the Chennai Super Kings as well as the Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

He is the first Indian batter to get a hundred in each of the three international cricket formats.

With all these brilliant performances and achievements, he is among the greatest players ever to wear the Blue Jersey. Raina surely is among the legends of Indian Cricket.

Early Life and Childhood:

On November 27th, 1986, Raina was born in Murad Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, into a Kashmiri Pandit family, to parents from the Srinagar area of Jammu and Kashmir. Raina resides in Ghaziabad’s Rajnagar neighbourhood. He attended boarding school to pursue cricket in his initial years.

Start to the Cricketing Career:

After deciding to pursue cricket in 2000, Raina left his hometown of Murad Nagar in the Ghaziabad district and moved to Lucknow to enrol at the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College.

He became the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s and garnered renown among Indian selectors when he was selected at the age of fifteen and a half for the U-19 tour to England, where he made two half-centuries in the U-19 Test matches.

He visited Sri Lanka with the U-17 squad later that year. In February 2003, when he was 16 years old, he made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam, although he did not participate in another game till the following year.

International Career:

Raina played 18 tests, 226 ODIs,a nd 78 T20Is for India in his international career. He scored 5615 runs at an average of 35.31 in the One Day Format. Raina scored 5 centuries and 36 half centuries in the ODIs. In the T20I format, he scored 1,605 runs at an average of 29.18, with one century and five half centuries to his name.

Raina was part of the Indian Cricket Team that won the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. He made valuable contributions to the team in the quarter final and semi final of the World Cup.

He was also an important member of the Indian Cricket team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

IPL Career:

Before the 2010 IPL finals, the BCCI gave Raina the title of “best fielder.” He scored a crucial half-century in the final, turning the tide in Chennai’s favour as they defeated the Mumbai Indians to win. He was included in the Cricinfo IPL XI based on his 2010 achievements.

His 2013 efforts earned him a spot on the Cricinfo CLT20 XI.

He scored 87 runs in 25 balls against Kings XI Punjab on May 30, 2014, in qualifier number two. After CSK was suspended in 2016, Raina was signed by the Gujarat Lions.

He served as the team’s captain for the whole season and continued to bat regularly, tallying 399 runs in 15 innings.

He achieved the milestone of becoming the first batsman to reach 5000 runs in the IPL on March 23, 2019, in the opening game of the 12th edition of the competition against RCB.

After MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, and Dinesh Karthik, Raina became the fourth player to play 200 matches in the IPL’s history in 2021.

After going unsold at the IPL auction, Raina became the commentator for the 2022 season.

On 15 August 2020, Suresh Raina announced retirement from International Cricket, following the footsteps of legendary MS Dhoni.

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India Cricket Legends – Suresh Raina International Career: