Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19: Suresh Raina named UP skipper for the 50-over event

Known for his middle and end-over escalation with the bat, Suresh Raina has failed to make the cut for the ongoing Asia Cup and the dashing left-hander has now been named the skipper of Uttar Pradesh for this season’s Vijay Hazare Trophy. This is a key opportunity for the 31-year-old to make a comeback in the ODI side and brighten his hope for featuring in yet another World Cup.

Raina last played for India in the three-match ODI series in England which the visitors lost 1-2. He also played five T20Is prior to the 50-over series – two against Ireland and three against England but in all the eight outings combined, the batsman could produce only one fifty. He was called as a replacement for Ambati Rayudu in the ODI series after the latter failed to clear the yo-yo test but as he claimed his spot back for the Asia Cup, Raina found himself out of the reckoning.

Raina was recently replaced by Akashdeep Nath as the captain of UP’s Ranji Trophy side but continued as the captain of the List A version. Raina’s immediate aim will be to score some runs so that he comes back into the selectors’ consideration for the five-match home series against the West Indies next month.

Raina hasn’t been as regular in the Kohli era

Raina, who has played 226 ODIs for India since 2005, has scored 5,615 runs at an average of 35.31. He has scored five hundreds and 36 fifties and often chipped in as the late-innings accelerator. However, Raina was more regular in the era of Mahendra Singh Dhoni than in that of Virat Kohli. His appearance for India in the blues in England came after a gap of almost three years.

Apart from veteran Raina, youngster Shivam Mavi has also been included in the UP team. A former Under-19 star who was a member of India’s successful squad in the U-19 World Cup earlier this year, Mavi has already made some noise in Indian cricket and though he is yet to play senior cricket, he has already played for India ‘A’ and also in the Indian Premier League this year. A good Vijay Hazare Trophy could also see him making his senior team debut.

UP will open their campaign on Wednesday against Saurashtra. They will subsequently face Chhattisgarh (September 28), Odisha (Sept 23), Delhi (Sept 24), Hyderabad (Sept 28), Madhya Pradesh (Sept 30), Kerala (October 4) and Andhra Pradesh (Oct 6).

Squad

Suresh Raina (captain), Akshdeep Nath, Umang Sharma, Ankit Rajpoot, Rinku Singh, Priyam Garg, Upendra Yadav, Shivam Chaudhary, Abhishek Goswami, Amit Mishra, Saurabh Kumar, Samarth Singh, Shiva Singh, Shivam Mavi, Mohsin Khan, and Yash Dalal.

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