Suresh Raina: Limited to limited overs cricket?

Suresh Raina is working on facing the short pitched ball which has troubled him in the past

Suresh Raina is a player that most people tend to associate with ODIs and T20s. The first image of him that forms in our mind is a player hitting the ball over mid wicket for a boundary, or coming out of the crease to hit a six. Seldom will somebody picture him defending the ball in a forward defensive stance. Therefore, to say that he has mostly belonged to limited overs cricket or more specifically faster formats of the game, wouldn’t be too erroneous.

ODI and T20 Giant

Suresh Raina’s achievements as an ODI and T20 player are well spoken of. His statistics speak for themselves. An average of 35.35 in ODIs and 34 in T20s at a strike rate of 91 and 128 respectively are enough to force the opposition to take him seriously. Also, he is a man for big tournaments. Despite being left out for the initial part of India’s World Cup campaign in 2011, Raina proved to be Dhoni’s trump card.

He was selected for the knock-out stages over hard-hitting Yusuf Pathan. His support to Yuvraj Singh in the quarter finals against Australia and his unbeaten 36 runs off 39 deliveries with tailenders against Pakistan helped India to score 260 runs, a game which India won by 29 runs. Therefore, his contributions lower down the order are vital and in the many cases match-winning.

Though, in ODIs he has harboured ambitions of batting up the order, he has always had to contend with the needs of the team more than anything else. He always has to come at a tricky batting position of no.5 and a match situation where the team is in trouble. Despite having hardly any scope to make a huge personal score, he has 3 ODI centuries and 29 ODI fifties to his name.

However in T20s, his contributions are more visible. In the shortest format, Raina’s ability to accelerate at will has always come to the fore whenever he has played for any team, be it India or his IPL team Chennai Super Kings.

His shot-making ability and running between the wickets make him a very busy player who is difficult to contain. However, despite all his achievements and credentials, he is overshadowed by the likes of players like Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni.

He calmly arrives, absorbs pressure, does the hitting part and mostly takes the team over the line. Also, his fielding is the cherry on top which makes him a compelling selection in both the formats.

Without a shred of doubt, Raina is an ODI heavyweight and a T20 colossus who cannot be taken for granted by opposition teams.

Technical Shortcomings

Many argue that he is one of the most dangerous batsmen in the shorter formats of the game but only if the team is playing in subcontinental conditions. A very well known weakness, is his shortcoming against the short ball.

This was very clearly exposed during India’s tour of England in 2011 just after his great showing in the World Cup. When the England bowlers saw him struggle against anything near the ribs, the news did not take long to move to other teams. Whenever Raina came out to bat, every fast bowler’s eyes lighted up, and even the medium pacers went for his one great weak spot as they had no qualms in pitching everything short.

Against such deliveries Raina is seen hopping as he tries to steer, hook and pull the ball in vain as he is unable to keep his feet on the crease while attempting the shots.

This is something that he is working on very hard, taking bouncers and relentless short pitched bowling in the nets. One must say, that he has improved a lot since the England series as he managed to hook and pull a few deliveries over the boundary line against South Africa in the ODI series that concluded late last year. However, the short ball again, was his downfall as he was unable to play the delivery consistently.

Also, recently he has found a new teacher and motivator in the former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, an elegant left-handed batsman himself and also someone who could empathize with problems faced with short deliveries. Ganguly has advised Raina to not only concentrate on the technique of playing the delivery but also on the mindset with which one approaches short-pitched bowling. The success of the advice by Dada would be seen only when he implements in the matches to come.

Till then, one thing is for sure, that opposition teams wouldn’t hesitate to bang it in short and would know that very soon something will give. Teams would continue strategizing against him till he learns to play the short ball consistently well.

Building an innings

Another area in which Raina is found wanting is building an innings. Raina is a specialist in short stints. “I am a 30-ball 50 batsman and I would never try and become a 60-ball 50 batsman,” as he puts it.

He will come in at a time when the team needs 70-odd runs and mostly finishers like Dhoni and Yuvraj would be batting on the other side. Therefore, he is more accustomed to playing the short but fast innings with aplomb.

It is true that when you come so low down the order, it becomes difficult to have a great average and all that matters is just scoring as many as you can while you are the crease for the tiny amount overs left and taking as much strike as possible rather than allowing the opposition to allow the tailender to be on strike. However, when the team is batting first and suddenly there is this huge collapse and half he team is inside the pavilion when only 20 odd overs have gone by, Raina can be seen as being pretty imprudent.

An example of this can be the innings at Chennai that Raina played in the home series against Pakistan, which India lost. In that match, India were struggling at 20-4. Some would say that if it wasn’t for Raina, India would’ve skittled out at a much lower total than they did. Raina did manage to make 43 runs off 88 deliveries with Dhoni batting at the other end but when he got dismissed, there were more than 16 more overs for India to bat out the innings.

A rash shot played by Raina as he tried to hoik a ball cost India several very important runs as he was the last recognised batsman who could’ve lent support to Dhoni. Everything that was then left of the Indian innings was Dhoni single-handedly scoring runs and somehow allowing the team to reach a modest total of 227 runs which could’ve been maybe even 250, had Raina stayed on and just tried to rotate the strike rather than trying to hit boundaries on a pitch that was not very conducive for batting.

Therefore, a batsman who harbours ambitions of batting up the order, should be more prudent and farseeing than he is right now while building innings.

Hence, building innings requires patience and the will to get in and fathom conditions, rather than just trying to accelerate by hitting balls that should be respected once in a while. Raina in most cases, has been unable to do so and this has led him to bat at the position of a finisher rather than someone who would patiently build innings and save one end up.

Fit for Test cricket?

Suresh Raina struggled on the tour of England in 2011

Raina is a fast, aggressive and stylish player. He is also quite obscure with small but very important contributions, be it his fielding or his batting. However, he is never taken as a viable option for Tests. Ask the cricket pundits why? And snap comes the usual – he has to find a way to play the short ball, teams have figured out and have successfully strategized and learnt to tackle his attacking batting, he lacks patience required for Test cricket and so on.

However, the fairness of the argument that a player is not good enough just because he is weak in playing a particular delivery is as good as saying that a bowler shouldn’t be selected because they can’t bowl yorkers. Not everybody can. They learn with experience and exposure which in Raina’s case hasn’t been enough. He has played just 8 Tests outside the subcontinent and that too, mostly in places like the Caribbean and England. Places like Australia are still unknown to Raina in the longer format of the game and that is not too fair to a player who has played 227 international games in the shorter format but just 17 in the longer format.

Exposure and experience is the key to Raina’s consistency in tests. However, there is no dirth of young players unearthed during Ranji Trophy who come every year equipped with technique, flair and every shot in the book. Every person is fighting for a spot in the coveted longer format, but very few even make to the fifteen, let alone in the final eleven.

Therefore, to be preferred over such talented youngsters, Raina has to correct and work out the technicalities of playing the short ball and not allow the oppositions to plan him out, to get ahead of him.

Raina has the will and potential to play a very vital role in the longer format, but he needs to be given opportunities which till now haven’t been many. He has the potential for Test cricket. Selecting him for overseas tours and giving him a stable batting position and a long run in tests would not only help his game in the longer format but also help him improve his game in the shorter formats which would be very beneficial for India’s performance across formats.