Suresh Raina opens up on his Test debut and balance to sustain in red-ball cricket
Veteran Indian batsman Suresh Raina has enjoyed great success in the limited-overs format. The southpaw was part of India's 2011 World Cup-winning team and also won the Indian Premier League title thrice with Chennai Super Kings. Raina was a dependable batsman for India in the middle-overs in the limited-overs cricket, but when it came to Test cricket, he made his whites debut quite late. Having played his first international match in 2005, Raina waited 5 years to make his Test debut. The Uttar Pradesh born player announced his arrival in longest format with a majestic century against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
Raina, recently, revealed that due to Yuvraj Singh's bad stomach, he got the chance to make his Test debut.
Yuvi paa (Yuvraj Singh) had called me up the night before the Test match and said, ‘I’m unwell, you be prepared’. He said ‘chances are there that you’ll play’. He probably had a stomach bug or a food infection, so he didn’t play,” Raina told Aakash Chopra in a YouTube interview.
The southpaw claims he couldn't sleep a night before the Test debut as he was nervous to play against the likes of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
“I couldn’t sleep the entire night because it was so hot in Sri Lanka, they had some big names in their team and it was going to be my Test debut,” Raina said.
“Luckily we lost the toss and we had to field. So I observed the first two days and when my batting came I was ready. If we had batted then probably I would’ve got a duck like my ODI on debut,” Raina added.
Raina also shed light on the T20 cricket and called it is not an easy format as people think.
“People think T20 is easy bit we take so much risk in T20s, play the ball in the air. But that is not the case in ODI and Tests, you have to adjust and have good temperament.
Raina, who played only 18 Tests for India, said he didn't find the right balance in Test cricket, which made his red-ball career a shorter one as compared to ODIs.
“Switching from white ball to red ball cannot be done overnight. You should take at least a couple of weeks practising leaving the ball; know where your fourth stump is. Perhaps I couldn’t understand that balance. I did well in West Indies but got them was dismissed a lot against off-spinners, the bouncers troubled me a few times too. So then got engrossed in too much ODI cricket and I didn’t get enough chance in Tests,” Raina said.
