Suresh Raina turns 29! Lesser known facts about the Indian southpaw
Suresh Raina has been a vital cog in Team India's middle-order for almost a decade now. An attacking left-hander who goes for the big shots with impunity and clears the field with a swashbuckling flourish when at top of his game, Raina has also garnered high praise for his athleticism in the field.
His ability to split the field and discover gaps where the fielders could not be placed earned him plaudits when he first burst through to play for India in December 2006. It took him five years to cement his place as a regular in the Indian team, moving from a limited-overs specialist who played 98 ODIs to the one who became the 12th Indian to make a Test century on debut.
Apart from his prolific batting and exceptional fielding, Raina has also proved to be a handy part-time spinner for his side. In the 98 ODIs he has played, Raina has bagged 36 wickets with the best bowling figures of 3/34 that came against West Indies in 2013.
Team India's star batsman Suresh Raina turned 29 on 27 November. The Uttar Pradesh batsman celebrated his birthday with his family and wife Priyanka Chaudhary. He also tweeted a photograph of him cutting the cake alongside his parents and wife on Friday.
As Raina gears up for a star-studded bash today, we wish him a very happy birthday. For a player of his ability, though, we must hope that his best innings are still to be played.
Suresh Raina's father Trilok Chand is a retired military officer who hails from Jammu & Kashmir. His family, which belongs to the Kashmiri Pandit community, moved from the Rainawari area of Srinagar to Muradnagar in Ghaziabad in 1980s.
Raina has three older brothers - Dinesh, Naresh and Mukesh - and one elder sister Renu. He currently resides in Rajnagar, a town in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Suresh Raina created history when he smashed a blistering 101 runs against South Africa to become the first Indian batsman to register a hundred in the shortest version of the game. Raina smashed nine fours and five sixes in his 60-ball knock that helped India inflict a 14-run defeat on the Proteas during the ICC World T20 in 2010.
Suresh Raina might have become one of the most dangerous limited-overs specialists in the recent times for India, but he did not have an auspicious start to his ODI career. In 2005, when he came out to bat against Sri Lanka with India reeling at 63/4, Raina was trapped lbw by Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan before he could open his account.
On the contrary, the left-hander scored a sizzling hundred and became only the 12th India to score a ton on debut in Test cricket. His first innings score of 120 runs against Sri Lanka in 2010 remains his highest score in the longer version of the game till date.
After a forgetful debut against Sri Lanka in 2005, Suresh Raina notched up his first ODI hundred in 2008 when he smashed 101 runs against Hong Kong during the Asia Cup. On 2 May 2010, the Indian southpaw scored 101 against South Africa to register his first hundred in ODI cricket.
Two months later, Raina scored his first Test hundred when he smashed 120 runs against Sri Lanka and became the fourth player (only behind Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene) in history to record a hundred in all three formats of cricket. He is also only one of the two Indian batsmen, apart from Rohit Sharma, to have achieved the feat.
Suresh Raina's prolific performances on the international circuit has made him popular in modern-day cricket. With an impressive net-worth of $13.7 million (approx), Raina made his teammates and fans jealous after he got his hands on the stunning Porsche Boxster limited edition luxury car.
On the occasion of his father's birthday in 2013, Raina purchased the beautiful beast for a whopping Rs 1.15 crore (ex-showroom). With 330 bhp at 6700 RPM, Raina's yellow-coloured beast goes from 0-60 mph in a mere 4.1 seconds.
After enthralling sports fans with the bat, Suresh Raina surprised everyone in 2015 when he went on to sing a song for a Bollywood movie 'Meeruthiya Gangsters'. The left-handed batsman revealed that he enjoyed singing the song 'Tu Mili Sab Mila' for Zeishan Quadri's directorial debut.
"My wife Priyanka is from Meerut and the producer of this movie, Shoeb Ahmed, is a family friend of mine. He insisted that I sing a song for the movie. Priyanka further convinced me to utilise this opportunity for trying my hand at singing. I hope listeners and fans will appreciate my effort as they have supported me whenever I am playing the game for my country," Raina had said before the track was released.
Ever since the advent of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), Suresh Raina has been a loyal and influential player for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). With 3699 runs in 132 games, the CSK batsman is currently the leading run-scorer in the history of IPL. Raina's run-feast in the IPL comprises 25 fifties and a century while his average of 34 plus is commendable.
Raina also holds a unique record of playing all the games Chennai Super Kings have played in the IPL so far. Even CSK captain MS Dhoni, who has missed just three games for the franchise in IPL history, is placed behind Raina in this regard.
After a number of senior players - including MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir - opted out of a tri-series in 2010 alongside Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, Suresh Raina was promoted in the ranks and was appointed the captain of the national side. Raina was just 23-year-old at that time, which also made him the youngest captain for India in the T20 Internationals.
It also made Raina the second youngest player to lead India in any format, the youngest being Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi at the age of just 21 years.
Suresh Raina got married to his childhood friend Priyanka Chaudhary in a grand wedding in New Delhi on 3 April, 2015. Priyanka, an IT professional with a bank in Netherlands, hails from Baraut in Uttar Pradesh. She also did her B.Tech from a reputed engineering college in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
The couple knew each other since childhood as Priyanka's father was also Raina's sports teacher in Ghaziabad. However, they lost contact after Priyanka's family shifted base to Punjab. The duo met again at the Delhi airport in 2008 for a brief period when Priyanka was flying back to Netherlands and Raina was headed to Bangalore for an IPL game.
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