Suresh Raina shares epic run-out video from his ODI debut
Suresh Raina has posted a throwback video of him impressively running out Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu during the Indian Oil Cup in 2005. This was Raina's debut ODI, where he contributed brilliantly in the field after registering a first-ball duck with the bat.
The former 2011 WC winner, renowned for his athleticism in the outfield, relived the prized wicket of the then Sri Lankan captain in the caption. He also added some words of praise for his role models.
Taking his fans back in time, Suresh Raina uploaded the video clip on Instagram and credited his success to his cricketing idols who inspired him to strive for greatness. In the video, he can be seen heroically running Atapattu out despite being unbalanced and having only one stump to aim at.
Although India went on to lose that particular match by three wickets, Raina's effort stood out as a positive for the team. Venugopal Rao and Dilhara Lokuhettige of Sri Lanka were the other players who received their maiden ODI caps in this game.
"Relived the early days with this one. Way back when it was all about proving myself, delivering unexpected & look up to my idols to learn as much as I could to add to my skills."
Apart from some magnificent records etched to his name, Raina also finds a place in the history books for a peculiar reason: he scored a debut Test hundred after getting a first-ball duck on his ODI debut.
In 226 ODIs Raina has scored 5615 runs at an average of 35.31, with five centuries. He last represented India in an ODI at Headingley, on 17 July 2018.
Suresh Raina is considered one of the best fielders in the world
Suresh Raina is widely considered to be one of the best fielders India has ever produced, and one of the best in the world right now. Along with Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, Raina formed a lethal combination in the field which was hard to breach.
Raina has several fielding records to his name in international as well as IPL cricket. The southpaw is among the five Indian players to take over 100 catches in ODIs, with Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli being the other four.
Across all the three formats of the game, Raina has taken a total of 167 catches for India.
In IPL, he is the only cricketer to scale the 100-catches mark, with a total of 102 takes. The next highest is RCB's AB de Villiers with 84 catches.
