A complex contradiction called Suresh Raina
On a warm day in Bangalore, where the summer usually comes early and has been particularly harsh this year, Suresh Raina rushed to the far end of the Chinnaswamy stadium and started to face some throw downs. His team-mates were on the other side, warming up themselves with some fun with the football. Some support staff were laying down the markers here and there, putting up the small goalkeeping like net behind stumps for throwing practice.
Around them, couple of men from the broadcasters were setting up cameras for the pre-match bytes that we see on the day of the match. Shikhar Dhawan does a sprint test – the players run a short distance marked by little yellow cones, and couple of players are sat under the umbrella canopy – pads, white towels, Gatorades sunk in ice-boxes, and open kit-bags lie around them. It was just another pre-game day, with its comforting routines and familiarity. One wonders how relaxed Raina can be these days. Things have been stewing up on a slow boil these days. He lost his place from the one-day team but he became the captain of a new IPL team. He isn’t scoring much with the bat in the T20s for India, but has been taking wickets. He is still a kid on field, with his back-slapping enthusiasm, running here and there and beyond the field he is maturing with his marriage pushing him into a mindspace where he feels – ‘kaam bahut karna hai, time bahut kam lagta hai’. (There is lots of work to do but time is less’).
That line could well be used to describe his cricketing career at this stage. We had a decently long chat for an interview last month, and some 20 minutes of it was spent talking about how branding, player-management, and pressures on a modern-day cricketer. It was amazing to hear him reel out the intricacies of branding and, and even more amazingly how young men have this ability to manage time and resources to do it without letting it affect their game.
Raina might still not be thirty but he comes from a background of playing along with Tendulkars, and Dravids and been around for 10 years now. Where did this change and awareness come along? “Honestly, this was after marriage. I used to do things fearlessly before. Jab saath phere liya tha, when Priyanka came home, I spent some time with her parents, I thought, no yaar this is a different life. I have started looking at my accounts after marriage. Viru bhai gave me great advice – buy some land, mom-dad key naam pey kar, do your stuff. Things have changed. Naya daur (new era), management hai, branding hai, commercial hai, IPL, manager also prepares you differently, makes you a brand.”
Unfortunately for him, just when he should be taking the next leap – and as a captain of the new IPL he is certainly entering another phase in his cricketing life, his ambitions are really soaring but the runs are drying up.
Work ethic and hunger
Raina is one of the modern cricketers whose work ethic and hunger have been raved by the likes of Rahul Dravid. Yet, something clearly has gone awry with the dividends on the field. The ODI ejection has hit him hard and though he was magnanimous in his praise for Manish Pandey, he was still confident that he would make a comeback.
However, he wouldn’t have expected this barren run in the T20s.
Sometimes, he surprises with his assessment of the pitch conditions. Not a pleasant surprise that is. Take Nagpur, the game against New Zealand, for example. New Zealand had already played their innings, early Indian wickets had fallen, and he himself had taken a wicket and it shouldn’t have surprised him that the ball was holding up on that pitch, and turning. What does he do? He started well by going back, suggesting he would wait for the pitch to do its thing on the ball, but then, he tries to turn the ball to leg side and a tad too early. It was a difficult ball allright for it stuck like a gunk before it peeled off the surface and came ever so slowly but by then it should have been expected. The least you can do is not go across the line, especially early in the innings, but he did and paid for it.
Is it a desire to rotate the strike? Is it impatience? Is there a clouded mind that makes him take these iffy decisions? The poor man looked gobsmacked when the ball looped up to short midwicket. What about Kolkata? Who would have thought Mohammad Sami would still be running in to bowl for Pakistan. And who would have thought Sami would not only bowl with pace but also be so accurate? Raina was stunned when the ball crashed into his inside edge of an angled bat that had come down a tad slow and fell on the stumps. He didn’t say anything as he just stood and looked like a sad puppy.
Was that iffy bat movement out of sheer surprise at how well Sami bowled that day? Was it pressure? Was it just bad luck? Both dismissals can’t be used to pin down as criticism of Raina. He was touch unlucky, yes, with the pitch in Nagpur, and by pace & accuracy of Sami, but here is the thing: he is earning a reputation that he can’t be trusted to bail out the team against quality spin or seam. And that’s dangerous situation for someone who wants to comeback not just the ODI team but craving to play in Tests.
It’s easy to like him, easier to criticize him, but how does he view his career so far? “I was in a shell for 10 years. Pressure bhi liya, I didn’t play in one World cup also (due to injury), scored in England, keep scoring 40-50 – my journey has been like that. And be it the captain or coach, they know Raina is a team-man. People say yeh 40-50 banayega, will field well, bowling kar dega, utility player hai. kabhhi waisa nahi mila ki yaar isney jitaya hai. (They don’t say he has won games for us on his own) – that’s how my journey has been.” Ambition, dream, desire is there but will the next couple of games in this World T20 offer him some joy?
