Former Indian cricketer, Suresh Raina, who decided to hang his boots from international cricket along with India and Chennai Super Kings teammate (CSK) MS Dhoni, received high praise from former India captain Rahul Dravid who paid tributes to Raina’s career saying he took the Indian fielding to a different level and did “all the difficult things” for the team like “batting lower down the order” and scoring at a quick tempo.
In a video released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on social media, Rahul Dravid termed Suresh Raina “one of the phenomenal players of the IPL in the last decade or so.”
MUST WATCH – As @ImRaina walks into the sunset, here's a heartfelt tribute from the legendary Rahul Dravid, who presented the left-hander with his most prized possessions – the ODI and Test cap.#RainaRetires pic.twitter.com/xqPnmAYatj
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 18, 2020
Raina amassed as many as 5615 runs in his ODIs career at an average of 35.13 and a strike rate of 93.50 and 1605 runs in his T20I career at an average of 29.18 and a strike of 134.87. In Tests, Raina scored a century on debut against Sri Lanka in 2010 but couldn’t build on that start as he finished with 768 runs from 18 Tests.
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Talking about the southpaw, Dravid said, “For India, for the most part of his career, he batted lower down in the order. He fielded at the difficult positions, he bowled some very handy overs and always brought a lot to the team. Someone I would think of as a terrific team man (who) always gave his best and brought a lot of energy to the game and was a very very skillful batter.”
Although he has retired from international cricket, Raina will play the IPL alongside Dhoni, who leads CSK in IPL. IPL 2020 will be played in the UAE due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in India and will begin on September 19.
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The final of the IPL 2020 is expected to take place on November 10 with the opening match expected to be played between CSK and Mumbai Indians (MI).
