Suresh Raina must stand up to the occasion

Suresh Raina must stand up to the occasion: The Bangabandhu National stadium in Dhaka witnessed delightful strokeplay on a fine day, as Shikhar Dhawan and Robin Uthappa went after a hapless Scotland in a group C encounter of the ICC under-19 World cup. Uthappa missed out on a century by three runs, where as “Gabbar” scored a dominating 155. But the show stopper turned out to be the Rajnagar boy who smashed the leather out of the park with a breezy 90 off 38 balls. Suresh Raina cleared the boundary on two occasions and stroked 14 boundaries with a straight bat.

11 years have passed since then, we moved on to 4G, a tea seller then, attends the BRICS and SCO Summits today. But nothing much has changed for this southpaw. The U-19 logo has been replaced by India, while Ceat sticker has taken the face of the bat, replacing SG.

Suresh Raina turned out in Indian color for the 219^th time at green park, Kanpur. India needed 35 from 23 balls and the platform was set for the CSK’s trump card to power India to a convincing win. Suresh Raina aimed to slam a googly from Imran Tahir over the midwicket boundary and ended up mis-hitting it towards long on. Suresh Raina was out in no time, while India ended up losing the game by 5 runs.

One may argue that, with 20 odd balls remaining, Suresh Raina had not other option than to go for it, as they couldn’t afford additional dot balls, but then experience is the thin line between a rookie and a settled campaigner. The likes of Bevan and Klusener didn’t stamp their authority from day 1, but it is the experience of playing in different situations and unfamiliar conditions, that shaped up the mettle.

In the last five years, Suresh Raina scored only 2 centuries in ODI. But more importantly he failed to push the score to the finishing line in most occasions. With pressure building up on Dhoni, it is the perfect time for Suresh Raina to shadow the skipper and return a favour.

Dhoni who earlier pushed Suresh Raina ahead of him to give him the leisure to score freely, now wants to rely upon him to finish the deal. The final blows that MSD dealt, are not coming as they would a couple of years back. Who better than Suresh Raina would understand it? Being someone who has been around Dhoni, has enjoyed his friendship and confidence upon him as a player.

The UP batsman never fails an opportunity to express the impression his Mahi bhai has on him as a being and as a cricketer. What he certainly needs to do, not just to take the sack off MS Dhoni’s back but also off the team is to stay calm, wait for the opportunity to arise and then kill it. Being a naturally gifted stroke player, Suresh Raina is the best guy in the team to accept the finishing challenge.

With 5503 runs from 219 matches and 188 innings at an average of 35.96, its time for the experienced southpaw to earn the bragging rights. The Indian team has its back to the wall, it’s time for “Sanu” to set the record straight.