Suresh Raina believes MS Dhoni can lead India to a second World T20 title
Suresh Raina was at Cuttack to represent his Uttar Pradesh side in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy yesterday. Raina, who was dropped from the Indian squad for the ongoing ODI series against Australia, disappointingly, after his illustrious ODI career of 233 matches and two World Cups was interviewed after the match where he talked about a lot of things, ranging from his early days, Dhoni’s test retirement and his love for bats.
On meeting Sachin Tendulkar for the first time
“Cricket has an altogether different passion in our country. That is a good way to motivate yourself. When I met Sachin, I felt very nice. When I got a scholarship from Air India, I used to play Times Shield in Mumbai. Sachin used to come and practice there. While you watch your hero practice in front of your eyes, he becomes your role model. You look at how he plays and then when you see your hero live again, you want people to recognise you just like him. You too aspire to play for your country.
“The kind of activity that players do on the ground serves as a morale booster. It becomes a motivation for kids from smaller towns and villages. At least, it made a huge difference for me. I don't know how other people look at their idols, whether they become happy or they learn something from them,” Raina said in an interview to Cricbuzz about his first meeting with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.
On India’s ODI and T20 skipper MS Dhoni
Talking about Dhoni’s retirement Raina said, “Nobody had a clue (about his retirement). He came up to me and said that 'I have an extra large (jersey). This is Double XL. Keep this.' I got a hint that he was going to do something. So I got it signed and asked him the next morning. It was his last day. He was having his breakfast and not talking to anyone. So I thought something is going to happen in the evening. As soon as the Test match got over, he called everyone and said that he wanted to say something.
“That time I knew that he was going to retire. It is a difficult time for a player. He slept with his t-shirt on the entire night. Ishant (Sharma), Ash (R Ashwin), Virat (Kohli) and me were all sitting in his room. He said, "After tonight, I'm not going to wear the white jersey."
Raina feels that as a captain, Dhoni had a lot of responsibility. People criticise the captain every time the team loses. The 29 year old talked about how sometimes people criticised players even when they won. He remembered Dhoni saying, “People are waiting to criticise you,” after India finished a match in Indore with a win.
Talking about Dhoni, the Lucknow cricketer said, “When the Indian team needed a good wicketkeeper-batsman, he emerged. He created a good Test team and handed it over to Virat. Now even in ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals, the day he feels like, he will quit from these formats too.
“At the end of the day, you need the trust and respect of your teammates. Everyone has money, everyone has dal-chawal to eat. You work hard to get respect inside the dressing room and outside. Right now, he needs support. If he gets a bit of support, you never know. The next World Cup (World T20) is in India. He won it in 2007 and has won it in 2011 as well. He has also won the Champions Trophy in 2013. For any captain, it is difficult to break Dhoni's record,” the left-hander said in praise of limited-overs captain.
On his love for bats
Raina is the owner of an odd 200-250 bats and admits his love for the willow since his childhood. “My house was in Muradnagar and the bat factory is one hour away from there. If you ask anyone in the Indian team, everyone is behind my bats. They are our bread and butter,” he said with a grin.
The left handed batsman who is an also off spin bowler has a sort of a bat museum. He said, “There are bats from the IPL. Matthew Hayden had given me a mongoose bat. Michael Hussey had given me a bat with which he scored a century in Ashes. The bat broke during the course of the innings. He had signed it for me.”