Despite all the controversies, Greg Chappell taught India how to win: Suresh Raina

Former India batter Suresh Raina has always played cricket in a risk-free and composed manner. He also steered away from the controversies and was the perfect example of a team man. The elegant southpaw was widely regarded as one of the best fielders of the game too.

He came into the team in 2005 when John Wright was in the twilight of India’s coaching career. His successor was Greg Chappell and the Australian copped a fair share of criticism from the Indian team members and media due to his hard coaching style. Raina gave interesting insights about the former Indian coach in his autobiography, Believe, What Life and Cricket Taught me.

The 34-year-old lavished praise on the Australian and stated he really taught the team to win in run-chases and instilled immense self-belief in the team. Chappell was with the Indian team from 2005-2007 in which, ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 too happened in West Indies in which the Men in Blue was ousted in the first round itself.

“In my opinion, Greg deserves a lot of credit for shaping that generation of Indian players. The fruits of the seeds he had sown were seen much later when we won the 2011 World Cup. I think somewhere along the line, despite all the controversies around his coaching career, he taught India how to win and the importance of winning.”

Suresh Raina lauds Greg Chappell

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) player also pointed out the way Chappell had a positive influence on the team and how he was aggressive and fearless in his coaching method. Matter of fact, India were heavily dependent on one or two individuals in the early 90s and 2000s and were considered a not-so-good chasing side in the ODI format.

But, Chappell and Rahul Dravid, who was the then skipper of the side, changed that statistic a bit as the Men in Blue won 14 consecutive games while chasing.

“He (Greg Chappell) taught us to chase totals. We were all playing well at that point, but I remember him stressing a lot on breaking down run chases at batting meetings. The credit for that goes to both Greg and Rahul Bhai,” wrote Raina.

Also, the former southpaw concluded by saying Chappell helped the likes of MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and himself by taking the added responsibility and finishing off the games on their own.