Suresh Raina

Domestic Team: Indian Legends

Date of Birth: 27.11.1986

Batting Style: Left Hand

Role: Batsman

Bowling Style: Right-arm Off Spin

Batting

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Bowling

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All-rounder

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Test Rankings

46 483

53 253

17 118

ODI Rankings

10 662

101 326

100 208

T20I Rankings

4 785

69 290

14 180

Suresh Raina – One Of The Most Productive Indian Cricketers

Some players are remembered for one great moment. Suresh Raina, a star of 21st-century Indian cricket, is remembered for an entire era. Having become a symbol of his generation, he went down in history as the first Indian cricketer to score a century in each of the three international formats – Test, ODI and T20I. His retirement from the sport on the same day as his legendary national-team partner and close friend M. S. Dhoni marked the end of an important chapter in the history of the Indian national side.

Suresh Raina: Biography and Sporting Career

Suresh Raina, whose full name is Suresh Kumar Raina, was born on 27 November 1986 in Muradnagar, a town on the outskirts of Greater Delhi. Suresh comes from the Kashmiri Pandit community, whose roots go back to the historic Rainawari area of Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir. His family’s move to the state of Uttar Pradesh was part of the community’s forced migration caused by the escalation of the conflict in the region in the 1990s. The cricketer’s father, Trilokchand Raina, was a military officer, while his mother, Parvesh Raina, took care of the household and raised the children.

For the son of a career soldier, the choice was simple and brutal: either follow in his father’s footsteps or carve out his own path and prove he was worth something. Raina chose cricket. At the age of 13-14, he left his hometown and moved to Lucknow, to the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College – a boarding school where newcomers were definitely not wrapped in cotton wool.

“My days in hostel were tough. I was ragged by my seniors. We were asked to wash their dirty clothes, do their odd jobs etc. When it came to eating, we would be often given burnt rotis and milk that had awful odour. But, never once did I call home. I knew if I had to become a tough cricketer, I would have to handle the pressure.” – from the player’s interview with The Times of India.

Those harsh trials and strict discipline helped Raina make rapid progress in professional sport. As early as 2002, at the age of 15, he captained the Uttar Pradesh under-16 team. That same year, he was called up to India’s junior national side. Then came his Ranji Trophy debut, the Under-19 Asia Cup in Pakistan and the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, where he finished as the second-highest run-scorer with 247 runs in seven matches. After the tournament, Raina received the Border-Gavaskar scholarship and went to train at the Australian Cricket Academy.

After completing his training in 2005, Suresh Raina made his senior international debut for India in an ODI against Sri Lanka. In December 2006, he made his T20I debut against South Africa. In July 2010, his Test debut followed: Raina scored 120 runs in Colombo and became the first Indian cricketer to register a century in all three international formats of the game. That was the start of a professional career in which he went on to rack up many more outstanding achievements:

• 2007: part of India’s historic victory at the first ICC World Twenty20;
• 2010: Indian Premier League (IPL) champion with Chennai Super Kings (CSK); Champions League T20 winner with CSK; ACC Asia Cup champion with India; named the best fielder of the IPL by the BCCI;
• 2011: ICC Cricket World Cup winner with India; second IPL title with Chennai Super Kings;
• 2013: ICC Champions Trophy gold medallist with the national team;
• 2014: Champions League T20 winner with CSK; ICC T20 World Cup runner-up with India;
• 2016: ACC Asia Cup champion with India;
• 2018: third IPL title with Chennai Super Kings;
• 2019: became the first cricketer in IPL history to score 5,000 runs;
• 2021: fourth IPL title with Chennai Super Kings; fourth player in IPL history to play 200 matches in the tournament;
• 2022: Abu Dhabi T10 winner with Deccan Gladiators.

Suresh Raina was remembered by fans not only as a brilliant batsman but also as one of the best fielders of his generation. His unique skill in the field was backed up by a historic IPL record: he took 109 catches – the best result among all outfield players in the league.

On 15 August 2020, India’s Independence Day, Raina’s friend and national-team partner M. S. Dhoni announced his retirement from cricket via Instagram. A few minutes later, Raina did the same. The date was chosen deliberately: Dhoni’s shirt number was 7, Raina’s was 3; together, they made 73 – exactly the number of years since India’s independence on that day. After stepping away completely from Indian cricket in 2021, Raina continued to play in overseas T20 leagues, for example, immediately joining Deccan Gladiators in the Abu Dhabi T10. Today, he is involved in business, charity work and match commentary and occasionally works within the CSK setup.

Suresh Raina: Personal Life and Interesting Facts

As for the cricketer’s personal life, he is married to Priyanka Chaudhary Raina, whom he has known since childhood. Her father was a sports coach in Ghaziabad and once coached Raina himself. The couple have two children: a daughter, Gracia, born on 14 May 2016, and a son, Rio, born on 23 March 2020. On Gracia’s birthday in May 2017, the couple founded a charity in her name – the Gracia Raina Foundation, which supports mothers and children from underprivileged families.

To wrap up the article, here is a short selection of interesting facts about the cricketer, along with his playing statistics:

• Suresh owns a restaurant –Raina Indian Restaurant in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Raina received an honorary doctorate from Vels University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Lucknow;
• The cricketer is a Manchester United fan. Away from cricket, some of his favourite activities include snorkelling, water sports and paragliding;
• He keeps all his bats – he had collected more than 250 of them by the time he ended his career;
• He plays the saxophone and once showed off the skill on a popular Indian TV show;
• He has several nicknames: “Chinna Thala”, “Mr. IPL” and “Sonu”.

Suresh Raina actively runs his social media pages, especially on Instagram (@sureshraina3) and on X, formerly Twitter (@ImRaina), where millions of followers keep up with his life. The cricketer also has a Facebook account: Suresh Raina Official.