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Comparisons with Brian Lara by someone with as trained an eye for talent as former Indian coach Greg Chappell notwithstanding, Suresh Raina has always managed to attract eyeballs and admiration with his overall skills on a cricket field.
Right from the time he made the cut from age-level to international cricket by the tender age of 18, the left-hander from Ghaziabad was earmarked for a bright future in international cricket, and he went onto earn plaudits from many experts around the world. Now in his fifth year at the highest level, the 23-year-old Raina not only seems to have realized his potential, he also has emerged as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's go-to man in all formats of the game.
And whether it was his quickfire 86 in the first Test, the crucial wicket of a well-set Ricky Ponting late during the first day's play at Bangalore or his destructive half-century in the second ODI, the prodigiously talented youngster came to the fore for his skipper at crucial junctures against the hapless Australians.
Though Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh had provided a rather solid foundation for the pyrotechnics that followed off Raina's bat at Visakhapatnam, the nonchalance with which the Uttar Pradesh left-hander finished off the contest was symptomatic of the unadulterated confidence that he plays his cricket with these days.
Their maiden appearances in international cricket may have come only seven months aparta sign of Dhoni's meteoric rise since debut while Raina, six years junior to his skipper in age, has taken much longer to cement his place in the Indian team, he certainly intends on making up for lost time. The buzz in the camp has been that the youngster has gained the complete trust of Dhoni. That he is skippered by the same man while playing for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL has certainly contributed a lot to the steadfast relationship between the two.
"The important thing is the rate at which he is scoring runs while playing the role of a floater for us. Normally he bats at number 5 or 6 depending on the situation and more often than not he scores at a brisk rate," says Dhoni about his key-man.
Following a shaky start to his career, where he averaged below the thirties, Raina has been scoring with an average of 42.32 and a strike-rate just short of run-a-ball under Dhoni. And 13 out of the southpaw's 16 half-centuries and all three of his centuries in ODI cricket have come in the period since 2008, when Dhoni has been in-charge.
This year, especially, has seen Raina soar to a higher level as far as his career is concerned. Not only did he become the first Indian batsman to score a century in international T20 during the World Cup in the West Indies, he also more importantly ended up scoring a ton on his Test debut.
And though his major scourge, the short-ball, did get the better of him on one occasion during the Test serieswhen he was dismissed by Ben Hilfenhaus in the second innings at Mohali he was instrumental both with the bat and in the field for India's 2-0 triumph. "If we are playing four bowlers, his role becomes very important because part-timers more often than not bowl ten overs. So you can say it gives a bit of cushioning to our set-up," says the Indian skipper about Raina's more understated vocation.
And his ability with the ball has been utilised by Dhoni in the IPL too, where Raina bowled his quota of four overs ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan a couple of times.
Uttar Pradesh coach Gyanendra Pandey, who has followed Raina's progress from a close-range over the years, however believes that his ward's present-day exuberance stems from the time he spent out of the team after a bad run of form in 2007. "He bats more sensibly and goes for big scores. The new Raina is ready for a longer run," says Pandey.
Touted as being a leading nominee to take over the reins of Indian cricket from Dhoni sometime in the future, Raina has already captained his country in four ODIs. But for now, he remains the incumbent's trump-card going into a crucial phase for Indian cricket.
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