Suresh Raina wants expertise in one department from coach 'Yuzvendra Chahal'

A year ago, Indian batsman Suresh Raina’s career was in the doldrums. He floundered in the Ranji Trophy, representing Uttar Pradesh. However, he scored a masterful century in Syed Mushtaq Ali  T20 event versus Bengal and caught the eyeballs of the selectors. He was thereafter, drafted into the T20I squad for India’s tour of South Africa earlier this year.

Albeit he didn’t score a whole lot of runs, he played well enough to be picked in the national team for the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka. He churned out some short yet useful knocks after which he telecasted his class for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. The left-hander was also included in India’s squad for their ongoing tour of Ireland and England.

Raina steadily paving his way

To add to his delight, he also found his place back into the ODI team after a gap of three years. Ambati Rayudu, who was initially selected, failed the yo-yo test and was sidelined from the team after which Raina was roped in. The 31-year batsman played both the matches versus Ireland at the Malahide Cricket Ground.  He couldn’t contribute much in the first contest and perished to Peter Chase for 10.

In the second match, he scored 69 runs and helped his team to score 200+ runs. More importantly, he carved a 106-run partnership for the second wicket with KL Rahul. The southpaw hadn’t had much to do in the Men in Blue’s first T20I against the Brits as the top order did most of the job in the run chase.

Meanwhile, he is busy taking batting tips from Yuzvendra Chahal, who isn’t renowned more for his leg-breaks than his batting prowess. Chahal took to Twitter and humorously mentioned to be mentoring Raina. He wrote, “Giving batting tips to @sureshraina3 bhaiya  #bleedblue”

Raina thanked him for the priceless tips and also put forth his need while batting. He replied, “haha, need sixes not single. Thanks for the advice anyways,”

Here is Chahal’s post and Raina’s reply 

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