Suresh Raina picks four Indian youngsters who impress him the most

Former India batter Suresh Raina is mighty impressed with the current crop of youngsters in the Indian team. Players like Mohammed Siraj, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sunder, Axar Patel, and Shardul Thakur stood tall in the absence of some of the senior players in the team’s epic 2-1 series win Down Under in 2020-21.

If Pant scored a brilliant unbeaten 89 at the Gabba, then Patel made sure to spin a web on the English batters by scalping 27 wickets in his debut Test series. They played a fearless brand of cricket and made sure to grab their chances with both hands. While the likes of Pant, Siraj, and Sundar are in England for a five-match Test series, Suryakumar Yadav, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Chetan Sakaraiya are in Sri Lanka to play limited-overs series.

Raina, who burst onto the scene as a youngster in the year 2004, knows the value of performing and learning at each possible stage of his career. He made sure to have an impact on the team by being a brilliant fielder and more than a handy batter in the team, before injuries and indifferent form in the latter part of his career cut short his journey in the Indian team.

Currently, the southpaw is in the news due to his newly released book ‘Believe’. In an interview with News24 Sports, he was asked to name the youngsters who impress him the most. “I think Devdutt Padikkal from Karnataka. After him, Ruturaj Gaikwad from Maharashtra. He is a gun player. Axar Patel has worked really hard, and he performed brilliantly well in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja,” Raina said.

Surprisingly he missed picking the name of the dashing wicketkeeper-batter and his friend Pant. The 34-year-old answered by saying, “See, he has entered the senior category. He’s grown. He is also hitting fours now and not only sixes,” he explained.

Suresh Raina credits Rahul Dravid for the contribution to the Indian team

The 34-year-old also picked Siraj and was also effusive in praise of Rahul Dravid who has shaped the career of Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, and Shivam Mavi.

“Even Mohammed Siraj is bowling so well. And somewhere I feel credit goes to Rahul Dravid who has worked extremely hard with the Under-19 team which is why he is with the senior team now and my best wishes to Shikhar Dhawan, that he does well and return to the Test team because he too is a very big player for India and he must be hoping to perform well in Sri Lanka,” Raina added.