“I call him Dharmendra” - S Sreesanth pays tribute to Suresh Raina on the latter’s 37th birthday 

Former India pacer S Sreesanth paid tribute to Suresh Raina on the latter’s 37th birthday on Monday, November 27. Making an interesting revelation, Sreesanth said that he calls Raina “Dharmendra” because of his good looks.

A reliable middle-order batter in limited-overs cricket, Raina played 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is for India from 2005 to 2018, scoring 5615 and 1605 runs, respectively. He began his Test career with a hundred but ended up playing just 18 Tests, scoring 768 runs at an average of 26.48.

In an interaction with Sportskeeda, Sreesanth praised Raina for his good looks and singing talent and commented:

“I am big fan of his. I call him Dharmendra because he was one the most good looking cricketers during our time. He is a very good singer. Lot of people do not know about it; he came out with a song as well.”

Shifting focus to the left-hander’s cricketing skills, Sreesanth described Raina as a highly underrated cricketer, who played a significant role in Team India’s 2011 ODI World Cup triumph.

“Suresh Raina is one of the most underrated cricketers. If we talk about the 2011 World Cup, he played crucial knocks against Australia and Pakistan. We would not have won the 2011 World Cup without his contributions. Gautam [bhai] Gambhir has often said that [MS] Dhoni alone did not win the World Cup for India; it was a team effort. All of us combined to win the World Cup, and Suresh Raina is a key name in that list,” the 40-year-old stated.

Raina contributed 34* in the quarter-final against Australia in Ahmedabad and 36* in the semi-final against Pakistan in Mohali.

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“Suresh Raina was the backbone of Chennai Super Kings” - Sreesanth

Apart from international cricket, Raina also had a highly successful stint with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). While CSK are synonymous with Dhoni, Sreesanth termed Raina as the backbone of the franchise.

“In 2007, Raina suffered a knee injury and he missed the World Cup. If he had not underdone a surgery, he would surely have been part of the 2007 World Cup. After that, he went on to become the highest run-getter in the IPL. Lot of people say that Chennai Super Kings is about MS Dhoni. I would say Suresh Raina was the backbone of Chennai Super Kings,” the former pacer commented.

Raina is the leading run-getter for CSK. In 200 matches for the franchise, he scored 5529 runs at an average of 33.10 and a strike rate of 138.91, with two hundreds and 38 fifties.