Less than a year ago, Suresh Raina had led the Indian team in a tri-series involving Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. The powers that be were hopeful that the Uttar Pradesh southpaw would play an important role in the World Cup. Things, though, don’t look all that rosy now. Raina could well be warming the bench when India kick-start their campaign against Bangladesh in Mirpur on Saturday.
As India get ready to face Australia in their first warm-up match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday, Raina and Virat Kohli will fight for that lone spot in the playing XI. Kohli’s exploits over the last one year or so seem to have loaded the dice in his favour. The team management, though, wants to give Raina his fair due in the warm-up games. For the record, India face New Zealand in Chennai on Wednesday before flying to Dhaka.
It is believed that coach Gary Kirsten doesn’t want to overlook Raina’s showing over the past few years. The left-hander’s experience can’t be undermined either. But Raina will need to score more than just cameos to snatch Kohli’s place.
In his last 10 innings, Kohli has scored 427 runs, including one century and four fifties, while Raina has managed to score only 233 runs, inclusive of one 50-plus score. Raina’s off-spin, though, can come in handy, especially on flat tracks. India are likely to go in with four specialist bowlers, while Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan will be expected to do the job of the fifth bowler. In case one of them fails, Dhoni could turn to Raina.
Kohli doesn’t want to be left behind.On Saturday, the Delhi lad was seen bowling his military medium at Gautam Gambhir. Wonder what Dhoni thinks of this!
Interestingly, even Sachin Tendulkar, who has bowled just twice in his last 27 ODIs, also tried his hand at bowling medium pace. For someone who bowls six different deliveries in an over, Tendulkar can always come to Dhoni’s rescue.
