Suresh Raina’s last outing in India colours before the ongoing T20I series against South Africa came almost a year ago at the same opposition. Since then, the 31-year-old has been showcasing his wares in domestic cricket in hopes of an India recall and his persistence was rewarded when he was picked for the T20Is against South Africa.
The Uttar Pradesh-born batsman took the chance to thank skipper Virat Kohli for believing in him in the pre-match press conference ahead of the deciding match at Cape Town.
With India displaying a new gung-ho approach to batting in the 20-over format as evidenced in the two matches so far, Raina described it as a planned strategy.
“Virat (Kohli) showed that faith in me. In the last two games, if you see in the first six overs we dominated their bowlers. In T20 cricket, it is really important to start well in the power-play. We played well in the first two games and I hope we are going to do really well in the decider,” he said.
The left-handed batsman has scored a seven-ball 15 and a 24-ball 30 in the series but has no plans to change his approach to extend his stay at the crease.
“In the first six overs, you need to play your shots. Sometimes you get runs and sometimes you don’t. When you have a lot of batting depth in the middle-order, you need to take a chance and they can execute it later on,” Raina explained.
With a series win on the line for India on Saturday, Raina also touched on the importance of finishing the tour well.
“We all had a word in the team meetings, where we felt we need to finish really well. Virat doesn’t take anything easy, MS(Dhoni) and Ravi (Shastri) gave a lot of inputs as well. When you are playing the decider, it is all about the enjoyment. Go out there and win the game for your country,” he added.
Raina was full of praise for the way Kohli has led the team.
“Virat has led the team well. We did well in Tests and won the ODI series. Dressing room is such that everyone is enjoying this success and the process is such that everyone is giving their inputs to the coach.”
With India’s middle-order still being a sticky point in ODI cricket, Raina was asked if he thought he could work his way back into the number five spot in the batting-order.
“It is important to win a trophy first and important to go out there as a team mindset. If you see the top order, they are all batting well. When you come to the middle order, MS (Dhoni) is there and Manish (Pandey) is also doing a good job,” he replied.
“So we will see where I can fit in. There are a lot of matches coming up now. Winning games is more important than being which format I am playing or not. Every Indian game is very important for me right now.”
The 2011 ICC World Cup winner said that the side was peaking at just the right time for the 2019 edition.
“All the games are very important. Virat has led the team really well, we did really well in the Test matches and won the ODI series (in South Africa) for the first time.”
“The dressing room atmosphere is such that everyone is enjoying their success. It is going to be a very long road from here on. We have one game tomorrow, then the tri-series (Nidahas Cup) and then a lot of matches in the IPL. You need to be fresh, keep winning and keep doing the right processes and stay in the present as we look to win each and every game,” he added.
