Self-belief is the reason for the turnaround in India's bowling: Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina celebrates his century against Zimbabwe on Saturday

India’s middle-order batsman Suresh Raina has said that the massive amount of self-belief in their abilities has played an instrumental role in the Indian bowling attack scripting an amazing turnaround at the 2015 World Cup so far. The bowling attack, led by Mohammad Shami have bowled out each of their opposition out so far and have looked a rejuvenated attack, as compared to the one that was on view in the tour of Australia.

“The outlook of this team has changed completely after the ODI tri-series.” Raina said in an interview with BCCI.tv.

“This team is looking totally different in the World Cup. The reason is, everyone believes in their game and trusts his own abilities and have been executing their plans well.”

“The bowlers have looked great in comparison to the ODI tri-series. That is a result of tremendous self-belief. Credit to each one of them to bring back the lost belief and channelise them into performances in the World Cup,” he said.

Dhoni and I trust each other and have the belief to win with overs to spare: Raina

Talking about the 196-run partnership against MS Dhoni, that guided India to a six-wicket win over Zimbabwe, the 28-year-old said that the duo understand each other’s game very well and are always confident of finishing off games for their side, with a few overs to spare.

“Me and MS Dhoni have been having great partnerships over the last seven to eight years while chasing. We wanted to take the game as close as possible and knew if we did that we would end up on the winning side.” he added.

“Me and MS have played so much that we understand our respective games well. We as partners trust each other and we showed that we could win from any situation. We had the belief that if we stayed at the wicket, we could finish the game with a couple of overs to spare,” he said.

Very important to maintain the balance between attack and defense: Raina

“I had to play my shots. I had a plan of targeting the left-arm bowler and I knew I could clear the field. It was very important to maintain a balance between the mode of attack and defense. It was important to rotate the strike, look for singles and doubles and get that one-off big hit.”

“When the off-spinner came on, I knew Dhoni would target him. Also, we wanted to make the most of the batting powerplay. We have seen games changing in the batting powerplay be it with the bat or the ball. We were very sensible with our shots in the batting powerplay and made good use of it without losing a wicket,” he added.

The left-hander was dropped on the score of 44 by Hamilton Masakadza and he made full use of that lifeline by scoring his fifth ODI century. Recalling that, Raina said that he was glad he could capitalise on the opportunity. He also revealed that Dhoni had advised him to not play the slog-sweep shot.

“MS had told me not to play that shot because it is not a shot that I usually play. I had a single for the taking that time. But later on I am glad I could capitalise on it and get a good knock for the team,” the Uttar Pradesh batsman said.