Want to get back in the Indian team, IPL a great platform: Suresh Raina

Discarded middle-order batsman Suresh Raina is ready to play his 10^th season of the IPL, which will be his second as captain. The Gujarat Lions skipper did a great job in his team’s success in their debut season last year. However, he made headlines soon after he was not included in the BCCI’s centrally contracted list of players last month.

Raina has not featured in an ODI for Indian since October 2015. He was given an opportunity to make a comeback when he was included in the home ODI’s against New Zealand. Raina missed all three games due to illness and later, Yuvraj Singh made a remarkable India comeback in the ODI series against England. The door seems to be shut for Raina in the ODI’s at least. He, however, still part of India’s T20 plans as he is a regular in that format.

Raina wants to play in the ODI format to where he has amassed 5568 runs in 223 games. Still just 30 years of age, the left-hander is looking to use IPL as a stepping stone to the Indian ODI Team.

“All I will say is that the IPL is a big platform to make a comeback into the Indian team going into the Champions Trophy and that is my focus. I want to get back in the Indian team,” he said while interacting with CricketNext.

Raina was alleged of not taking his cricket seriously when he skipped the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a prestigious T20 domestic tournament of India and the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the one-day domestic competition in India. He cited that he and his daughter were ill during these tournaments hence he opted out of both of them, something which didn’t go down too well with his critics.

“People can say whatever they want. The IPL is big and I am looking forward to having a great season this year. It is an important tournament and I am ready to go out all guns blazing. I have played a lot of T20 matches to know how to go about things,” he said.

Raina is popularly hailed as one of India’s best T20 cricketers ever. He is the second highest scorer in the history of IPL with 4098 runs at 33.59 per innings. His strike rate of 138.58 is very impressive. Raina has never scored less than 370 in any of the past 9 IPL seasons’, which shows his consistency in this tournament.

Injuries to star players Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja have affected their team combination ahead of this year’s IPL. Raina, though, is unperturbed and has belief in the depth of the squad.

“Injuries are a part and parcel of a sportsman’s life and you cannot do much about it. But we have come along well so far after joining the squad and everyone here is looking good,” Raina said. The 30-year old has a lot of talent in Gujarat Lions squad which boasts of the likes of Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, James Faulkner and Jason Roy among others.

Gujarat Lions will take on KKR at their home ground Rajkot tonight. All eyes will be on skipper Raina whenever he comes out to bat.