30 Aspiring Facts About Suresh Raina Every Fan Should Know

27 June 2019, 6:33 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Suresh Raina, regarded as one of the best fielders in world cricket, is an aggressive left-handed middle-order batsman and an occasional off-spin bowler. He is the first cricketer in the history of Indian cricket, to hit a century in all three formats of international cricket. Here are some facts about the Indian international cricketer:

He was an integral part of Indian team in the limited-over cricket with exceptional credential in the Twenty20 format. He is an aggressive left-handed middle order batsman who bowls occasional off-spin.
He was born Suresh Kumar Raina, on November 27,1986, in Muradnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India, to Parvesh Raina and Trilokchand Raina, a retired military officer.
He is the youngest of five siblings with three older brothers, Dinesh, Naresh, and Mukesh Raina and an elder sister, Renu. Though Raina hail from Rainawari, in Jammu & Kashmir, they have settled in Murad Nagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
At the age of 14, Raina moved to Lucknow, to attend the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow, to better his cricketing ambition. In two years time, he was chosen to lead the Uttar Pradesh Under-16 team.
In 2002, at the age of 15 and half years he was selected for the India Under-19 tour of England. He featured in three matches aggregating 179 runs at an average of 44.75 with two half-centuries including a highest score of 72.
He made his first-class debut at the age of 16, on February 1, 2003, in Guwahati, against Assam in the Ranji Trophy competition. He scored 22 and 40, coming in as one drop batsman. Bowling his off-breaks he gave away 22 runs in 9 overs.
Raina was part of India Under-19 team which won the Asia Cup in Pakistan in November 2003. He didn’t have a very good tournament scoring 71 runs in three innings with highest score of 47 runs.
In the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Dhaka in Bangladesh, in February, in the match against Scotland Under-19, he scored 90 runs of 38 balls with 14 fours and two sixers. He was also awarded the Man of the Match for scoring 66 runs under pressure and taking two wickets against West Indies.
He was the second best in run aggregate for India in the tournament with 247 runs at an average of 35.28, with three fifties. He also had five wickets and was joined leader with six catches in the tournament.
He was rewarded with a scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide under Border-Gavaskar scholarship in early 2005, which enhanced his back-foot play.

He made his List-A debut against Madhya Pradesh at Indore on January 9, 2005, scoring 16 runs and took a wicket with his off-spin. He enjoyed a good season in domestic limited overs game, aggregating 645 runs in 15 matches at an average of 53.75.
He spent some time playing for Astley & Tyldesley Cricket Club in the Lancashire League, amassing 865 runs in 12 matches and also bagged 12 wickets.
Suresh Raina was included for the three-day tour match against touring Pakistani team but didn’t get to bat due to bad weather. However, in the limited over match against the same opponent on March 30, 2005, playing for India-A, he top scored 55 of 65 balls for a losing cause.
On July 30, 2005, Raina made his first-class limited over debut for India, against Sri Lanka, registering a golden duck. He had rather rude awakening facing Muttiah Muralitharan’s doosra. He amends by affecting a brilliant run-out from mid-wicket with single stump to aim.
Along with Mohammad Kaif’s leadership, Suresh Raina’s batting was instrumental in Uttar Pradesh winning the 2005-06, Ranji Trophy. He was fourth top run getter in the tournament with 620 runs from ten innings at an average of 68.88 with one century and five fifties.
Though he was called into the squad for the South Africa’s tour of India in 2010, he got to play only in the One Day Internationals. He aggregated 107 runs in two innings at an average of 53.50, with one half century.
Suresh Raina was made the captain of the Indian team for the tri-nation series in Zimbabwe in 2010, after frontline players were rested. He failed to inspire with an ordinary series as captain and player aggregating just 83 runs in four innings at an average of 27.67 with highest score of 37.
He also captained in the Twenty20 series that followed the ODIs, leading India to 2-0 win over Zimbabwe and toped the run chart with 100 runs in 2 innings with highest score of 72.
On May 2, 2010, in the ICC World Twenty20 competition against South Africa in Gros Islet, he scored his maiden century. He scored 101 of 60 balls with 9 fours and five sixers. It was only the third century in T20 internationals.
He became the sixth Indian batsman to score a century on debut in a Test match, when he scored 120 runs in the second against Sri Lanka in July 2010 and aggregated 223 runs in three innings. He also has a dubious record of having played the most ODIs before being considered good enough for Tests.

According to India’s coach Gary Kirsten ‘Raina won the World Cup for us with some crucial knocks.’ He scored 34 against Australia in the quarterfinals and 36 against Pakistan in the semifinals, batting with tail enders.
For the tour of West Indies in 2011, he was appointed the captain for the ODIs and T20s by default when main players were either rested or injured. Though India won the series, he personally had a poor series averaging just 16.4 and in the Test matches he averaged 46.4.
He was preferred over Yuvarj Singh for a place in the Test series during the tour of England in 2011. Apart from feisty 78 in the second innings at Lord’s, he scored just 27 runs in six innings. His 29 ball duck in the finals tests, equaled Irfan Pathan’s record for the longest duck in India’s Test history.
In the series against Sri Lanka on July 28, 2012, in Colombo, playing in the third One Day International, Raina powered India to 5 wicket win with a decisive 65 run knock to be named Man of the Match. He aggregated 174 runs in five innings with 3 half-centuries.
As part of ODIs and T20 international for the series against England in 2012-13, he excelled with bat scoring 277 runs in 4 innings at an average of 92.33. He was declared Man of the Series and also broke into ICC top 10 ranked batsman for the first time in his career.
After being in and out Indian team he was recalled to for the Twenty20 series against South Africa and won the Man of the Match with 24 balls 43 runs and also took a wicket to help seize the series 2-1. Subsequently he came into reckoning for the world cup when he was named in India-C team for the Deodhar Trophy.
Raina was the first Indian batsman to score century in all form of the cricket. He has centuries in Test, ODIs, T20s, IPL, and CLT20.
Rain was signed up by Chennai Super Kings for US$650,000 for the first three years of the tournament and went on to play for many seasons providing final flourish to the innings. He has a record of most consecutive appearances for a team with 158.
He is the first and only player to have scored over 400 runs in 7 consecutive IPL season and the first ever cricketer to reach 5,000 runs in IPL. He also holds the record of most number of catches with 95 in IPL.
Suresh Raina has appeared in 226 matches in One Day Internationals with over 5615 runs with 5 centuries and 36 fifties. However, his Test match appearances are limited to just 18 matches with 768 runs.