'MS knew I have talent' - Suresh Raina responds to Yuvraj Singh's 'Dhoni's favourite player' comment

Suresh Raina has played mostly under MS Dhoni’s captaincy during his career. The latter even backed him a lot during the tough times and Raina also made sure that he rarely disappointed his captain. Yuvraj Singh recently commented that the Uttar Pradesh player was Dhoni’s favourite when he was the captain.

Responding to the statement, the left-hander has conceded that Mahi always supported him as he knew the talent in him. Suresh Raina also recalled how Dhoni used to caution him during his bad form. The former then used to assure him that he will not repeat the mistakes and make sure that he performs in the upcoming games.

“I would say MS definitely supported me, he supported me because he knew I have talent, I’ve done it for him, CSK and Team India, whenever he supported me. The best part about him is that he will tell you after two games, ‘If you don’t score, I’ve to take a big step.’ I said just give me one or two games, I will make sure not to repeat mistakes,” Raina said while speaking to Fancode.

Suresh Raina speaks about the challenges of batting in middle-order

Suresh Raina also highlighted that the middle-order batsmen have a lot of challenges as they have to bat in different situations in almost every game. He mostly batted at five or six for India and once was tried at number four which was the burning issue in Indian cricket until Shreyas Iyer took over after the World Cup.

“You know, middle-order isn’t easy, every game you play sometimes you bat for 10-15 overs and sometimes for 30 overs. Our position is different and we’ve to chip in with the ball, we’ve to get 2-3 wickets and we’ve to save 15-20 runs. Middle-order has always been challenging for me, but, I’ve always taken everything positively,” the 33-year-old added.

He also thanked MS Dhoni for always backing him and termed him the greatest captain after Sourav Ganguly. Suresh Raina is also satisfied that he always stepped up whenever Dhoni backed him and is happy that he was part of the World Cup squad in 2011 which India won.

” I am thankful to MS because he’s always been my great admirer and he always knew what sort of talent I have. I think it’s all destiny. He’s the greatest captain we had after Dada, so I think we should really enjoy things when we play the World Cup.

“God has been kind in all difficult situations, it’s difficult to say now that I got less or more chances, I am happy that I was part of that WC, he supported me, I delivered, so I think I can’t ask for more,” he further said.