There is chance to make further inroads in T20 and return to ODI side, says Suresh Raina
Making a comeback to the Indian side after a year-long absence, Suresh Raina has asserted that he would want to use the T20I as a medium to regain his place in the ODI squad ahead of 2019 World Cup. He also said that winning the trophy was more important than him playing in any format or not.
Suresh Raina last played for India in a T20 game against England on February 1 in 2017, in which he had scored a match-winning 63 in 45 balls as India won the match by 75 runs. However, even after his impressive knock Raina was excluded from the squad for the Sri Lanka series and did not feature in the blue jersey for almost a year. However, the southpaw was finally included in the T20 squad this year for the South Africa tour, and he has grabbed his chances well.
With India still struggling to find a concrete option in their no. 4 position Raina's chances of making a return is still ripe and the pinch-hitter seemed confident that it would help him to make further inroads and return to the ODI side as well.
"It is important to win a trophy first and important to go out there as a team mindset. If you see the top order, they are all batting well. When you come to the middle order, MS (Dhoni) is there and Manish (Pandey) is also doing a good job. So we will see where I can fit in. There are a lot of matches coming up now. Winning games is more important than being which format I am playing or not. Every Indian game is very important for me right now," added the 31-year-old.
India
“It is important (to attack). Virat (Kohli) showed that faith in me. In the last two games, we have dominated in the first six overs. It is very important to play well in the first six overs.When you look to target the first six overs in T20s, you have to play your shots. Sometimes you get runs sometimes you don't, but I think when there is depth in the middle order you need to play really well in the first six overs,” said Raina.
"You need to take chances in the first six overs when you are looking to chase or get big runs and that's what we have done as a batting unit," he added.
India would definitely like to continue their momentum in the World Cup next year, which would help them to perform well in the Cup and when Raina was asked what the team thought about the World Cup he replied, "I think it is a long road to the World Cup from here on. First, we have the tri-series in Sri Lanka, then we have the IPL, so we need to keep fresh, keep winning and doing the right processes."
"Closer to the World Cup we will be able to tell where we are going. It is important to stay in present and look to win each and every game," he added.
India lost to South Africa on the back of some aggressive show put on by Heinrich Klaasen and JP Duminy, which helped SA to win the match with six wickets remaining and eight balls to spare. And Raina has credited the South African players for unlocking India's wrist spin and come up with a different plan.
"In the first game, they had two fielders back and no third man. So Rohit (Sharma) took 20 in the first over. But they bowled well in the last game. They were using a lot of variation like the slower ball.We have done really well as a bowling unity. Sometimes you need to credit the opposition as well. They needed to do something different else when Kuldeep (Yadav) and Yuzvendra Chahal were not allowing them to score,” said Raina on SA’s performance in the 2nd T20I.
"They needed to come up with a plan B and they have done that. But it is not that we haven't done well. Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 5 wickets, Hardik (Pandya) and Chahal have bowled well," he added.