What's next for Suresh Raina?

BCCI recently announced the squad for the T20I series against Windies and Australia. While a plethora of youngsters received a call-up to the national team, it came at the expense of the ouster of some vastly experienced players in MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina.

Talking about Raina, apart from being a handy middle-order batsman, the Uttar Pradesh boy can put a control on the opposition’s scoring rate with his off-breaks and can also stop the batsmen from rotating the strike with his fielding skills. But, his recent performances have not been impressive which has led to the player's absence from the squad. Raina was last seen donning the Indian colours in July 2018 during the limited-overs series in England.

Raina had a dubious record in the recently concluded Deodhar Trophy

Suresh Raina seemed to have a bright future when he first entered the cricketing world. Raina remained as the cornerstone of the Indian team for few years due to his aggressive batting style. He was the only player who had the gut to hit sixes right from the first ball.

But due to hard luck, Raina hasn’t been in great form over the last few years. The selectors too have dropped him from the national side pertaining to his bad performances. At one stage, even the BCCI removed him from the contract list. Except for IPL, Raina has not been playing well in any other tournaments. Deodhar Trophy was the one last hope for him to make a comeback. But he even lost it due to his pathetic performance.

Raina scored just 4 runs in 3 matches in the domestic competition. He scored 1 run in the first match, 2 in the second, and again 1 run in his last match. The CSK stalwart was the most experienced player in the entire tournament but still performed poorer than the inexperienced players. Looking at his form in this tournament, he wasn’t included in the T20i squads.

With Raina seemingly out of the selectors’ World Cup plans, we may never see the all-rounder play for India again. What do you think can Suresh Raina ever make a comeback in the Indian team? Share your views in the comment box below.