It was on this day 15 years ago Suresh Raina donned the blue jersey for the first time in his career. It was during the First match of the ODI series against Sri Lanka in Dambulla in the Indian Oil Cup.
It was a forgetful debut for the middle-order batsman, as he got out on a duck by Muttiah Muralitharan. Even India lost the match by three wickets.
But it didn’t take the left-handed long time to cement his position in the limited overs team. Due to his impeccable fielding skills and attacking batting down the middle order he also became one of the must-have players in the white-ball cricket.
The 33-year-old has so far played 226 ODIs, 18 Tests and 78 T20Is for India, scoring 7988 runs across all the formats. He also captained India in a few T20I matches in the absence of the then regular skipper MS Dhoni.
Besides, he plays for the Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and become one of the biggest assets of the side. Moreover, he is the second-highest scorer in the history of the Indian Premier League with 5368 runs in 193 matches.
Raina last played for India in 2018 against England at Leeds. Since then he has not been a part of the Indian team till today.
Suresh Raina will next play in the Indian Premier League that is scheduled to take place from September 19 in UAE.
