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We'll show what we're at home, says Raina


vamos_rafa

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Despite losing the ODI series 3-0 in England, India's Suresh Raina is hopeful that a young team will learn from the experience and give the visiting English team a stiff competition. He spoke about the upcoming ODI series in a freewheeling chat with TOI on Monday. Excerpts: How is the preparation for the England series? We are very excited. We have done well in the last year or so. We have a young team and the players performed well though we lost the series in England. At home, it's going to be a great experience. We will show England what we are at home. What went wrong in England? Rain contributed a lot but as professional you can't complain much. We have to look at our mistakes rather than passing the blame. There were quite a few seniors who missed the ODI series in England, but the youngsters displayed great strength of character to counter England. If you see the results of all the matches, all of them were close games. With so much cricket being played, how do you manage to motivate yourself and keep yourself fit? We follow the fitness regime set by the team. I do my meditation everyday. It really helps. You have to tell yourself that you have to score big today. Only then it will happen in reality. You also need to look at your diet and sleeping habit. The best bit is to know when to switch on and off. I am grateful to Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton for helping me evolve better as a cricketer. Your take on coach Fletcher? He is a good coach and his knowledge on the game is helping the team. Give him some time and he will also get us results. Can India team become No. 1 Test team in near future? Why not? Look at the achievements of our team in the last three years. We were the No. 1 in the world and also won the World Cup. England series was bad for the team, but we have the talent and passion to be No. 1 again. Suresh Raina in coloured clothing was different from what we saw of him in England. Why? I started off the Test series well. Got some runs at Lord's Test, but failed to score big in the next two matches. I talked with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman and they told me that there was nothing wrong with my approach. So, it was only a matter of time when runs would come. In the one-dayers, I didn't do anything special. I would also like to mention that the England bowlers were very impressive. What are your thoughts on two new ball rules that will be applicable from India-England series? We are all excited about it. Waiting to meet my teammates and it will be interesting to see how every team would execute the rule. Are you disappointed with Super Kings' performance in the Champions League? Of course, I am extremely disappointed to have missed out on the Champions League, but it's good feeling to see both the IPL teams making it to the final. Thanks to IPL, we are seeing more and more cricketers showing their true mettle in tense situations.
Sometimes, Raina reminds me of Irfan Pathan. There are serious flaws in his technique, just like in Irfan's, but they still give heaps of interviews,justifying their approach.
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Can India team become No. 1 Test team in near future? Why not? Look at the achievements of our team in the last three years. We were the No. 1 in the world and also won the World Cup. England series was bad for the team, but we have the talent and passion to be No. 1 again. Need more than just talent and passion :facepalm: Athleticism, hard work, massive improvements in fielding and unearthing new bowlers are also urgent requirements to get anywhere near the top again.

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What you want him to say' date='we will be humliated again ,we will be never no.1 again...blah blah.People start to whinge about everything here.[/quote'] You are not being logical. The fact of the matter is, not even Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, or for that matter MS Dhoni give a high-handed interview like this. He's throwing names around to justify his lack of effort. He is taunting the same people who exposed his credentials in England. It will help if he says, "We will do our best and may the best team wins". Now many people would say this is the "young blood talking", etc. See, even in young blood, you should have trailblazing performances and achievements to talk in this manner. Just because people don't agree with you is not tantamount to them being whiners. Instead, accept that yes, Suresh has been out of order here and he should have avoided this kind of approach.
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Lets be fair. It's very unlikely Suresh unless it was Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Uthappa wearing a Raina mask. TOI-let paper isn't one of the best newspapers around. Reminds me of this :

India’s leading newspaper Times of India has acquired the domain rights to the controversial, ex-pornographic portal desibaba.com. Users now typing or searching for desibaba.com will be automatically directed to the Times of India website. This decision is expected to bring in an increased amount of loyal userbase to the website.
http://www.fakingnews.com/2010/10/times-of-india-to-acquire-domain-rights-of-dead-desibaba-com/
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I dont think this is arrogant at all! at home we are a good side and will be tough to be even without a full strength team! Even though we lost the ODI series in England and were without the majority of our first choice team the game we lost were pretty tight! It is not like he is saying we will win 5-0 or anything Over the top, just that at home we have a great chance of winning if we play to our best which is a fair comment, would you rather him say we have no chance and that we may as well hand the trophy to England? I am all for being realistic but some people are just way to pessimistic!

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I dont think this is arrogant at all! at home we are a good side and will be tough to be even without a full strength team! Even though we lost the ODI series in England and were without the majority of our first choice team the game we lost were pretty tight! It is not like he is saying we will win 5-0 or anything Over the top, just that at home we have a great chance of winning if we play to our best which is a fair comment, would you rather him say we have no chance and that we may as well hand the trophy to England? I am all for being realistic but some people are just way to pessimistic!
Do you think that England is capable of defeating India 3-2 in this series? If you believe that they are capable of doing so, then Raina statement is certainly inappropriate especially after worst tour for the team.
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Do you think that England is capable of defeating India 3-2 in this series? If you believe that they are capable of doing so' date=' then Raina statement is certainly inappropriate especially after worst tour for the team.[/quote'] I think the chances of England pulling off that kind of result in India is slim at best!
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I think the chances of England pulling off that kind of result in India is slim at best!
Yeah, we saw how easily full strength Indian team with Zaheer, Nehra and Yuvraj in good form defeated England in WC match at home. rolleyes.gif Now with weak batting and rubbish batting, chances of England winning the series is certainly slim. Facepalm.gif
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Yeah' date=' we saw how easily India defeated England in WC match at home. [img']http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif
To be fair that was the group stages! we didnt play that well in the group stages but look at the knocks outs against teams far superior to England how we faired! First knock out match they played was against Sri Lanka and they got cained by 10 wickets!
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To be fair that was the group stages! we didnt play that well in the group stages but look at the knocks outs against teams far superior to England how we faired! First knock out match they played was against Sri Lanka and they got cained by 10 wickets!
And how good is this Indian team against that Indian team of WC? How bad is this England team in comparison to that England team of WC? I don't think there are many people who would believe that chances of England winning are really slim.
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