Suresh Raina is one of the iconic Indian cricketers. He is an asset for the team – a good batsman, a great fielder and a handy bowler. This post will revisit Raina’s batting career in all the three formats of the game. The post will not access his bowling and fielding capabilities. He made his ODI debut in 2005, T20 debut in 2006 and Test debut in 2010.
T20’s: Raina has played a total of 32 International T20 matches (28 innings) at an average of 33 and strike rate of 136. Out of the 32 games, he played just 4 in India. The following graph shows a snapshot of the runs scored in all the innings he has played so far. X-axis shows the number of innings played and Y-axis shows the runs scored.
The graph clearly shows that Raina has got consistent with time. He did not start his career on a very high note (he averaged just over 17 in his first 10 matches). Currently he might not be scoring high, but he is getting scores of 30-40 almost regularly, which for a down the order batsman in T20 is quite good.
ODI’s: Raina has played a total 151 ODI’s (2005 – 2012) at an average of 35 and strike rate of 93. Let’s analyze his performance for the games played from 2009 onward. Analyzing the games played in India (home conditions) and abroad separately. He has played 31 matches in India in the last 3 yrs and scored 762 runs at an average of 40.
The graph shows that though he is not very consistent, but he is fairly consistent. He scores around 3-4 decent scores of 40+ and then gets a low score. If we compare this trend to his performances on foreign soil in the last 4 yrs, there is a stark difference. The following graph captures his batting performances abroad in the last 4 yrs.
His batting average for the last 46 matches played abroad is 32. The graph has similar troughs. He does well in a couple of games and then gets out cheaply. Thus, he is not a very consistent player on foreign soil.
Tests: He made his test debut in 2010 against Sri Lanka at Colomo. In the 17 matches (29 innings) he has played so far, his average is a measly 28.
The graph shows that his test career has been very inconsistent. He has hit even a deeper slump recently, his last 5 scores being (0, 0, 3, 55, and 0). Thus, after a good start to his career he has not been able to maintain his ground in test cricket. He needs to establish himself in this format else there are promising youngsters waiting in the wings!?
A video clip on Raina:
PS: Raw data used for analysis taken from Statsguru – Cricinfo.com