Suresh Raina shares an endearing video of daughter on Father’s Day

Suresh Raina has not played an ODI for India in 20 months now with the South Africa home series in October 2015 being his last appearance. With the back of a very successful IPL, Raina came back into national reckoning. His name was discussed for the Champions Trophy campaign but was later picked as one of the five standbys for the 18-day tournament.

Raina, currently away from the cricket, is enjoying his time at home with his 13-month daughter Gracia. Raina’s love for family has increased manifold ever since he tied the knot with Priyanka Chaudhary. Since IPL’s inception, Suresh Raina missed his first IPL game in May 2016, when he flew down to Amsterdam to be with Priyanka who gave birth to their first child Gracia on May 15. The left-hander was captaining the Gujarat Lions as his previous franchise was suspended for two years.

On Father’s Day, Raina took to Twitter to upload a cute video of Gracia, who addressed the left-hander as “Papa”. Raina captioned the video as “love being a dad” and used hashtags as #TheEarlyMomentsMatter to indicate that he is loving the break from cricket by spending valuable time with his baby.

During the course of the 10th edition of the IPL, Raina overhauled Virat Kohli to become the leading run-getter in the history of IPL. The 30-year old now has 4,540 runs in 157 innings. The crowd applauded Raina when he went past Kohli’s tally and amongst the crowd was baby Gracia, who too clapped when her father reached the milestone. Raina was proud of the achievement as his bundle of joy was there to acknowledge it.

“It was a proud moment. I love that I get to share these precious moments with my family,” he said to Economic Times. Incidentally, this was also Gracia’s first visit to a stadium during an IPL game.

Raina further spoke about of the joy being a father to a baby. His love for Gracia is something all fathers around the world can take heed from.

“Every moment is special with Gracia. She is a jolly baby. She tries copying the dance moves she sees on baby TV channels. I love to be a part of that with her,” he told Economic Times. “I love it when she falls asleep on my chest. It’s my most peaceful and happy moment,” he added.