Still have cricket left in me to return to Indian fold, feels Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina has stated that he has few years of cricket left in him and thanked the senior players for always supporting him when he was down with a knee injury. Raina further added that Yuvraj Singh vomited in the middle during India’s WC encounter against West Indies when he was at the other end.
Suresh Raina, a World Cup winner, last donned the Indian colours in the 2018 series against England - in both ODIs and T20Is - but has found himself out of favour ever since. The rise of younger players like Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul in the middle-order hardly helped his cause, with his appearances limited to only Indian Premier League. However, the southpaw, who played 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is for India, stated that he still harbours the hope of playing for India sooner than later.
"I was correcting myself, I regained fitness after a knee injury and in the process, I also passed the yo-yo" test. I put in a lot of hard work to get into the team, big players always supported me during my bad phase and I still have cricket left in me," Raina told Rohit Sharma during an Instagram Live session, reported Times of India.
Suresh Raina played a huge role in India winning the 2011 World Cup, with his knocks against Australia and Pakistan in the Quarter-final and semi-final respectively being hugely underrated one. Yuvraj Singh was in fine form throughout the tournament despite battling life-threatening cancer and Raina remembered the incident when the Punjab batsman vomited in the middle.
"I was batting with him against the West Indies and he vomited during the course of his knock but remained unperturbed and continued batting."
With MS Dhoni being under a long sabbatical, which will be a year in a couple of month’s time, no one is sure what his future plans are. However, Raina stated that Dhoni looked in impeccable touch in the practise sessions before the Coronavirus outbreak put a brake to the IPL plans.
"I saw him and he was batting so well, he is fit. Only he knows what he is planning but as far as his skills go he was good. Now that the lockdown is here, I don't really know what his plans are. He has a lot of cricket in him and he was batting so well there," said Raina.
Rohit, who had some of his best years under MS Dhoni, instantly replied back by saying, "If that is the case, he should play. I hope he starts playing again," said Rohit.