Former India batter Suresh Raina had an illustrious career in international cricket as well as the Indian Premier League (IPL) which stretched to almost 15 years. Raina retired from international ODI cricket with 5,615 runs, 1,605 T20 runs and 768 Test runs to his name. But 18 years after he made his ODI debut back in 2005, Raina still remembers the day fondly.
Raina revealed on ‘Home of Heroes’ show on Jio Cinema that he got his debut cap from captain Rahul Dravid and how he had to give a speech in the dressing room in Dambulla. The former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter revealed how he picked Dravid as his ‘favourite’ batter over Sachin Tendulkar, who was also in the dressing room then and was trolled by Yuvraj Singh for this.
“I got my India cap in 2005 from Rahul (Dravid) Bhai. I had to give a speech in front of (Sachin Tendulkar) Paaji, Viru Paa (Virender Sehwag), Dada (Sourav Ganguly), VVS Laxman, Zaheer Bhai, Ashu Bhai (Ashish Nehra), Anil Bhai (Anil Kumble), Yuvi Paa (Yuvraj Singh), Bhajju Paa (Harbhajan Singh), MS Dhoni had recently joined the team and Irfan Pathan. So, I started the usual speech but was stopped midway and asked to name my favourite player,” Raina said on Jio Cinema.
“I said I idolize Rahul sir a lot so Yuvi got on to me immediately and pulled my leg saying, ‘The world’s best batsman and God of Cricket is sitting here, how is he not your favourite?’ I clarified that Sachin Paaji was also one of the favourites but I had posters of Dravid on my wall. It was a very friendly banter and broke the ice for me,” he added.
Interview of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina after 2013 CT final win @ImRaina pic.twitter.com/HbIFGZLbKV
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Raina revealed how he first met Tendulkar while playing club cricket. “We were playing against Sun Grace Mafatlal which also had Sachin Paaji’s best friend Atul Ranade playing for them. I scored a double ton and asked Atul if I could meet Sachin Paaji. Atul made it happen and Paaji said “Hi Suresh, how are you?”, and that was all. I couldn’t believe that one day I would share the Indian dressing room with him and win a World Cup because he is God to us as I grew up listening to his matches on the transistor along with my father and brother,” Raina revealed.
Asked when he realised that dream of playing for Team India wasn’t far away, Raina said, “After the U19 World Cup, some of my batchmates like Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik went on to play Ranji Trophy for their states, but I couldn’t break through in the UP team. I scored a lot of runs in Deodhar Trophy and coach Gyanendra Pandey recommended me to play in England for a season. I played for a club in Manchester for two months and that taught me a lot of life skills like cooking and fine dining and I made a lot of runs. Thereafter I was picked for the UP team in Ranji Trophy in 2002.”
