Suresh Raina, nicknamed ‘Sanu’, is an international cricketer who was born on November 27, 1986 in Ghazibad, Uttar Pradesh, India. He attended the specialist government sports college in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and he was a first-class student right through his academic career.
In 2002, when Suresh Raina was just fifteen and a half years old, he was selected for the India Under-19 (U-19) side to tour England, and later the same year, he toured Sri Lanka with the U-17 team. In February 2003, Suresh Raina made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh and in the later part of the year, he played in the U-19 Asian One Day International (ODI) Championship in Pakistan. He scored three half centuries, including his 90 runs from just 38 balls at the 2004 U-19 World Cup and earned the Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy. Suresh Raina was included in the senior national squad for the 2004-05 Challenger Series, following his impressive domestic first-class limited overs debut season, in which he scored 645 runs at an average of 53.75.
Suresh Raina made his ODI debut for India on July 30 in the 2005 Indian Oil Cup series against Sri Lanka, following an injury to Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly’s absence due to suspension. During the 2006 tour of Pakistan, as Virender Sehwag was not able to participate due to injury problems, Suresh Raina was once again included in the team, where he was given the chance to bat in the fourth ODI and got involved in the successful run chase. Following that, he was included in the Test squad, but though he did not play in the Test series against England. In the following ODI series against England, Suresh Raina earned his first Man of the Match award when he scored an unbeaten 81* in the successful run-chase at Faridabad. He scored three fifties in the series and ended it with 282 runs to his credit, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) awarded him with a C-grade contract. On June 25, 2008, Suresh Raina scored his first ODI hundred in grand style against Hong Kong, scoring it in 66 balls, which is the second fastest ODI century by an Indian. He carried his good form forward, scoring 84 from 69 balls against Pakistan and 116 from 107 against Bangladesh and earned three successive Man of the Match awards in the series. Besides his good batting skill, Suresh Raina is a good fielder too, normally standing at the short square leg for India, he has a good eye for stumps.
Suresh Raina made his international Twenty20 (T20) debut on December 1, 2006 against South Africa, and he was signed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Chennai Super Kings, for $650,000. Suresh Raina was the tournament finalist’s most successful batsman, who scored 421 runs in 16 matches at an average of 38.27 and strike rate of 142.71. In the game against Deccan Chargers at Hyderabad, he scored 54 not out to help the team win the match by 7 wickets, earning the Man of the Match title and also earning the DLF Maximum Sixes award for hitting two sixes.
