Ask a cross-section of Indian cricket fans about the heroes of the 2011 World Cup triumph, and you’ll get a variety of answers. Some will vouch for Gautam Gambhir, whose 97 glued together the run chase in the final; others will opt for MS Dhoni’s unbeaten 91 that sealed victory. Those sympathetic to children of lesser (bowling) gods will point to Zaheer Khan’s interventions against England, West Indies and Australia. There will be support too for Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel, who bowled exceptional spells under intolerable pressure in the Mohali semifinal against Pakistan.
Many would mention Yuvraj Singh, for his all-round excellence and the unconquered half-century that extinguished Australian dreams of a fourth straight title. The more sentimental will say Sachin Tendulkar, though neither of the two sublime hundreds he scored – against England and South Africa – resulted in an Indian victory. Only those that watch their cricket in granular detail will remember a young man who scored 74 runs in three innings, inclusive of two of the most priceless cameos in the history of the 50-over game.
It’s this simple: There would have been no World Cup win, no end to the 28 years of hurt, without Suresh Raina. With Brett Lee bowling like a zephyr and MS Dhoni back in the pavilion, India were 187 for 5 chasing 261 against Australia. Yuvraj’s on-bended-knees celebrations dominate the highlights reel, but Raina finished with 34 from 28 balls, including a nonchalant loft over long-on off Lee.
Against Pakistan, with Wahab Riaz and Saeed Ajmal leading the bowling charge, Dhoni was sixth man out with 50 balls still to be bowled. Raina stayed till the end, taking 36 from 39 balls. Instead of chasing around 230, Pakistan had to recalibrate their sights to 261. They couldn’t cope.
On Saturday evening in Auckland, Zimbabwe couldn’t either. When Dhoni joined Raina in the middle, India were listing at 92 for 4, needing a further 196 at more than seven an over to ruin Brendan Taylor’s Zimbabwe farewell. They won with eight balls to spare. Dhoni, who times his surges as effectively as Big Mig Indurain did in his Tour de France heyday, made 85 from 76 balls, but it was Raina’s 110 from 104 balls that was central to India finishing the group stage with a perfect record.
Despite what his many backers – and there are many, within and outside the team – think, Raina, now 28, is unlikely to ever be an accomplished Test batsman. Like Michael Bevan and others before him, he doesn’t seem able to free himself from the demons, technical and mental, that sap his confidence the minute he dons whites.
It’s astonishing, though, that Raina’s flaws in the Test arena have coloured perception of his one-day exploits. The same folk who have no hesitation in labelling Yuvraj an ODI great have issues giving the same status to Raina. Raina averages a fraction less (36.16 to 36.28), while striking at six runs more (93.6) every 100 balls.
Unlike Yuvraj, who did most of his best work from No4, Raina has played the majority of his cricket at No5. In Tests, that may not matter, but in ODIs, when coming in after a formidable top order, you often have no option but to go bang-bang from the first delivery you face. Had he been red-ink obsessed, Raina would have averaged more. One of the reasons he’s so valued within the team is for the unselfishness with which he’s always approached his batting.
It isn’t Raina’s fault that Greg Chappell suggested he would be the outstanding batsman of his generation. Those words, and the perception that he was one of the teacher’s pets during those turbulent years, haunted him for a fair while, so much so that when I interviewed him for a magazine feature in 2010, he refused to mention Chappell even once.
The backlash against Dhoni and the Chennai Super Kings in the wake of the IPL spot-fixing scandal has seen a welter of stories about how his franchise mates have been given preferential treatment. In Raina’s case, that’s a load of rubbish. You can run down his Test performances as much as you like, but you would have to be especially dim-witted and ignorant about the game to not recognise what a major role he has played in the ODI side.
In the 128 matches that India have won since he made his debut a decade ago, Raina averages 49.91 while scoring at better than a run a ball. If that isn’t greatness, then maybe it’s time to redefine the word.
