Suresh Raina and Test match promotion

[Manny_Pacquiao]

Watch Jadeja batting in NZ in 1998 against Simon Doull as an example. Awesome stuff. We were 15/4 in no time. :cantstop: Or against England at Edgbaston in 1996. That was even better.

haha, man, you're pretty knowledgeable about indian cricket. what are you doing on ICF?? :omg:

[Cricket Tragic]

haha, man, you're pretty knowledgeable about indian cricket. what are you doing on ICF?? :omg:

This place isn't that bad, is it? :hmmm:

[Trichromatic]

Pity that he isn't good enough. There is a lot to like about him. Obviously he will still be part of our ODI team.

Yeah, sometimes you like attitude and commitment of a player, but there is lot more required to stay at that level.

This place isn't that bad' date=' is it? :hmmm:[/quote'] :cantstop: Btw where do you live dude?

[Cricket Tragic]

Yeah, sometimes you like attitude and commitment of a player, but there is lot more required to stay at that level. :cantstop: Btw where do you live dude?

True. I live in London.

[Sidhoni]

Why does Raina fail?

It's easy to dismiss him as not being a Test player, but what if none of the upcoming players the system is producing are? Dileep Premachandran September 20, 2011 It was Suresh Raina's 15th game since his debut nine months earlier. He had batted in only seven of them, and when he marked his guard at the Nahar Singh Stadium in Faridabad, India were 80 for 4 and listing in pursuit of England's 226. Yuvraj Singh's exit made it 92 for 5, with nearly half the overs gone. The game was eventually sealed with six balls to spare, and Raina finished unbeaten on 81 from 89 balls. In the Guardian, Lawrence Booth wrote of "a cricketer of such frightening potential that a nation's collective frown about life after Sachin Tendulkar might even begin to ease". Raina finished the series with two more sprightly half-centuries, in Margao and Indore. A couple of months later, when the Wisden Cricketer magazine put together a list of 10 young cricketers to watch over the coming decade, his name was on the list. Five summers on, we heard an entirely different tune. From senior journalists to the fan on the street, everyone seemed to have an opinion about Raina's technique against the short ball. Until a couple of fine innings in the one-day series, there were no press clippings worth saving, just one unkind or disparaging word after another. Another young man started the Test series with scores of 12, 1, 2 and 5. But Alastair Cook's summer will ultimately be remembered for two centuries against Sri Lanka and the monumental 294 against India at Edgbaston. Though Cook is a couple of years older than Raina, the two are contemporaries. That they excel in two different formats of the game says as much about the environments they've been raised in as it does about the individuals. Sir Francis Galton, who did so much research on "nature versus nurture", once said: "Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world; nurture is every influence without that affects him after his birth." The careers of Raina and Cook provide much insight into the making of a young cricketer. Raina made his first-class debut seven months before Cook, in February 2003, though he would become a regular only the next season, a little past his 17th birthday. More than eight years on, he has played only 67 first-class matches, including 15 Tests. Cook's tally is a whopping 156, of which 72 have come in England whites. Raina has played nearly twice as many List A games (169 to 89) and more than three times as many Twenty20 matches (91 to 29). A comparison here is quite instructive. Rahul Dravid, though he spent the bulk of the last 15 years on India duty, has played 134 first-class matches outside the Test crucible. A sizeable number of those came before his debut in 1996. In May 2010, just before he led an experienced side to Zimbabwe, Raina spoke about his career path and his eagerness to play Test cricket - he would debut a couple of months later, in Colombo. When asked about the short ball, he was visibly agitated, attributing his travails to the formats he played in. "If you're chasing 190 [in a T20 game] and you have to score off every ball, you have to try all your shots," he said. "Sometimes they come off." The key word there is "sometimes". During the one-day series in England, he hit some stunning fours and sixes when the bowlers dropped even fractionally short. But there were also several miscues, like the one that cost him his wicket at Sophia Gardens. So is he really a Test misfit or just someone whose game has been calibrated for the one-day arena? During his 294, Cook faced 545 balls. Of those, 377 were either left alone or dead-batted to the nearby fielders. As much as the strokes he played and the concentration he showed over nearly 13 hours, the ease with which he left deliveries alone was noteworthy. The same was true of Dravid, who made three centuries in the Test summer. Whenever he played a loose stroke, he would admonish himself, take guard again and resist any other temptation that came his way. Like Cook's, Dravid's game was grooved in the first-class school. He struggled initially in one-day colours because hitting over the top didn't come naturally to him. His was a compact technique that needed to be relaxed a little to adjust to the demands of the 50-over game. It's the same challenge that Cook faces now as he leads England in the one-day arena. For Raina the task is diametrically opposite. In blue, he looks every inch a young man who knows his game and how to extract the most from it. In Test whites he comes across as someone who doesn't know what approach to take. It wasn't the short ball alone that troubled him in England. So wary was he of getting peppered with them that he'd be far back in his crease and in no position to negotiate full, swinging balls from the likes of James Anderson. It's all too easy to dismiss someone like Raina as "not a Test player". But Indian cricket will face the same problem with youngsters who take his place. Test-match techniques can't be learned in 50- and 20-over spans. And a first-class system that can guarantee only six or seven games over a couple of months isn't the best teacher either. Sending young players to play tournaments like the Emerging Players Trophy is a big step in the right direction. But there also need to be far more A team tours, especially to countries where the conditions are nothing similar to those found in most parts of India. A little time away from the limelight is no bad thing, as Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer proved after the sternest of baptisms against West Indies and South Africa. Raina, who works as hard as anyone, can certainly find his way. "There was something about the way he batted," said Dravid, harking back to his first glimpse of Raina in the nets at the National Cricket Academy six years ago. "He was obviously a young, talented kid, and when he first came into the side a month later, you knew there was something different about him. He had the stroke-making ability and it seemed natural to back him." Indian cricket needs to do that, but first people need to be honest about why Raina fails. Dileep Premachandran is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo

[Chandan]

1.Lack of FC matches as a whole 2. Lack of exposure in different conditions through A tours 3.No time to rectify the flaws in techniques that he has while facing quality bowling in longer format. None of the three are points are such which can't be rectified if we want a talented young batsman to turn into a successful test batsman/ But BCCI? It doesn't want that. Has never wanted and all the players we've got are despite BCCI rather than because of it. So if Raina can find time for these, he can make a test career for himself or else he can say goodbye to the longer format and concentrate on the shorter ones.

[MCcricket]

Raina is one of the best stroke players around , the arc his bat swing makes, can almost put the ball to any part of the ground at any trajectory regardless on the angle the ball came at him, the swing of his bat almost reminds you of the grim reaper.Flip side he is not a natural hooker or puller of the ball , but he can be a effective or even a very good test player, he needs to let go the fear of getting hit and be decisive as far as avoiding the short ball or hooking , pulling , hoiking it or plain just slide it over the first slips head like Tendulkar does.He can take a leaf of Waughs book also have a work with Ganguly who had to fight his own demons with the short ball, this might be the make or break factor as far as his test cricket is concerned,he is talented enough to learn to score and find his way out , so bowlers will not target him as much as they do

[akshayxyz]

Raina is a special case of young talent who has already shown commitment, potential and temperament (in ODIs) - and yet fails in tests - despite trying hard. I can attribute it only to poor talent management from the top level.

[Sachinism]

Playing on wickets designed to 'provide entertainment' for the public is the cause of the problem. Young players are playing on wickets where they can swing the bat and get plenty of quick runs, they forget about technique as they're pounding bowling attacks. Giving youngsters opportunities to play in different conditions is what needs to be done.

[Sachin=GOD]

Raina has always had a few problems but these were not noticed prominently in the shorter version but of course Test match cricket is a different ball game altogether so despite being extremely successful in ODIs and T20, Raina has not done that well in Tests. But he is a very, very hard worker and can improve his technique and work on his problems if he gets proper guidance and that guidance can come from someone like Ganguly who faced similar problems throughout his career but was still a successful Test batsman. As for the things BCCI should do but doesn't, its been said a million times already on ICF, so no point repeating it again.

[Trichromatic]

100 games on flat/slow track - mainly LOI.

[Yoda-esque]

Have observed that the natural arc that Raina's bat makes is more in a vertical plane (almost like golf) , which is why he is great at lofting and driving ,but not so much as cutting and pulling.

[MCcricket]

Raina considered as a prodigious talent , also in terms of bat swing , height , stroke play, should take a leaf from LARA'S BOOK,how he played both with the horizontal and vertical bat very convincingly,not to compare them though.Same for Sreesanth if he could only learn and try to emulate Dale Steyn , either of them not too tall, at his best , which is far and few between , reminds me of India's version of Steyn , what he lacks stamina, drive, fitness, his action needs to be tightened,maturity.I hope both these players prove their worth and not end up being just average players.

[Cricket Tragic]

And Vinay Kooomar should emulate Marshall.

[fineleg]

Pls dont compare Ganguly and Raina. Ganguly's strokes(off-side play esp), timing and class was much better than Raina's - short-pitch issues notwithstanding.

[MCcricket]

Just looking at Sreesanth bowl in SA , AGAINST AUSTRALIA AND THEN YOU CAN SEE MY POINT, YES DADA THE BEST PLAYER ON THE OFF SIDE , RAINA PLAYS ON BOTH SIDES BUT COMMON WEAKNESS BEING PEPPERED ON THE BODY , THAT WAS THE POINT,apologize about the caps lock I am a bit lazy in typing, well further what Chapple rights about comparing Hussey and Raina I do not agree, Hussey having played in AUSTRALIA ALSO IS FAR MORE EXPERIENCED, if you look at his playing career,Sreesanth I doubt but Raina I believe is earnest and a trier , Believe he will be a test batsmen for India and find a way around his weakness.

[Rahul Dravid]

IPL.

[Number]

Usually youngsters are given chances in ODIs , then doing well there they improve defensive technique and get into test side. Pattern for Raina has been different, he did well in ODIs then IPL made him a free hitter. Loopholes in his technique remained unsorted. Now a year or 2 will tell whether he will be able to overcome his technical flaws through his mental strength or not.

[Sidhoni]

Raina can still be a good test batsman in the Subcontinent where the pitches are not that helping to bowlers as compared to Eng or Australia.

[Silva]

Its pretty hilarious that Suresh Raina has played 15 test matches where as the genuine test batting procpects (rahane rohit and pujara) Have played a grand total of 3 test matches combined. virat kohli also got 3 test matches mostly because he scored some good 20s and 30s in the world cup. Its not really a big surprise we get our asses handed to us when our main batsman are unfit. These guys have hardly played First class cricket and have hardly done anything special in the few matches they have played but our selectors expect them to dominate International test cricket? And people get surprised when they fail? I was more surprised to see raina score 50s than I was seeing him get owned by the aussies english and south africans.