Raina finally gains respect in Test match format
Five years ago when an 18-year-old Suresh Raina first made an impression on India’s tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 by playing a few match-winning cameos in ODIs, it was taken for granted that he would go on to achieve greater things. The British press even started comparing him with Sachin Tendulkar, who was himself only 17 when he first toured England. Five years on, Raina's maiden Test century and that, on debut, has had everyone raving about this bright talent again.
It has been a sweet and sour journey for Raina so far, which has seen more ups than downs.
Raina And The ‘Short Ball’ Syndrome.
While everyone was predicting great things for Raina, things hadn’t been that straightforward, with injuries to his knee, and competition from fellow upcoming players such as Rohit Sharma and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 threatening to overshadow his prominence. Perhaps more importantly, his perceived discomfort against the short ball gave the impression that while he could succeed on the docile pitches or in the shorter formats of the game, Test cricket would eventually ‘sort out’ Raina.
Even as recently as two months ago, it was still assumed by a lot of fans that Sharma or Kohli would get a preference over Raina when it comes to getting a middle-order slot in Test cricket. For once the critics were being fairly accurate in pointing out his obvious shortcomings against the rising delivery.
In back-to-back T20 World Cups, Raina had been found wanting against the short bowling and even in a few ODIs, bowlers were increasingly becoming aware of that one channel in which he simply didn’t like the ball to be.
Perseverance pays off
To Raina’s credit however, he has always showed a willingness to overcome his weaknesses. Eventually the sheer weight of success that he had at the international level, much more than that Sharma, Kohli or anyone else had tasted thus far meant that it was hard to ignore the left-hander anymore. By justifying the faith reposed in him once Yuvraj Singh was declared unfit for the game, Raina’s taken the first big step of proving that he is shaping up well to refine his game in this demanding form of cricket.
A 100 When The Team Needed The Most
Also, Raina’s knock at the SSC in Colombo gains even more importance when one considers that India was not completely out of the woods even when he had crossed 50. His knock on on the fourth day of the Test along with that of Sachin Tendulkar was instrumental in the team keeping the series alive.
This is not to take away the fact that he still needs to work on the short ball. He seemed to deal satisfyingly with whatever Dilhara Fernando and others threw at him but better attacks await him; more hostile attacks in testing conditions will come relentlessly at him and it is imperative that he firmly comes to grip with dealing with the obvious weakness in his game.
Tests
The good thing about the man is that he is aware of it and unlike a lot of his peers and some other elder statesmen too, Raina wants to play Test Cricket and deal with the weaker part of his game on the big stage. He seems unfazed by all the success of ODIs and T20s and on more than one occasion has said that his ultimate dream remained to succeed in Test cricket. The reiteration came after his knock yesterday when he touched upon the ‘respect from everyone’ factor.
He said, “The satisfaction of making a hundred in a Test match is a completely different feeling. I think I got respect from my team-mates."
Raina could just be that next big thing that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 needed in the middle-order in the Test match format of the game, given the impending retirements of the likes of the Dravids and the Tendulkars of the world. After years of not quite achieving the breakthrough success many pegged for him, Raina finally looks ready to prove his doubters wrong, and his many supporters right by taking up the mantle on Indian cricket.
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