Suresh Raina more confident now

Suresh Raina more confident now

He isn’t a stranger to failure and its consequences

— Photo: AP Trusting his instincts: Suresh Raina’s explosive counter-attack at Napier was weighted with risk, but his faith in his instincts paid off.

Wellington: There was much that will have gladdened India in the first ODI: the improved application and expression of the batsmen; the control and penetration of the new-ball pair.

And there were a few things at Napier that will have caused it concern, mild or otherwise: the continued tardiness in the field; the third seamer’s lack of efficiency.

Suresh Raina’s explosive half-century, a knock of contextual significance, belongs in the first category — of that there is no doubt. But it is of particular interest because it fore-grounded the interplay of the oldest dynamic in batsmanship: that between instinct and method, near impossible to separate because at some level, each feeds the other.

When the left-handed Raina joined his captain M.S. Dhoni, New Zealand was just beginning to get a toe in the door. Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh struggled to maintain the rapid tempo the incomparable Virender Sehwag had set, and when Yuvraj was run out, the possibility of a debilitating slide was real.

Two choices

Raina had two choices before him. To play himself in, following the tried and tested method, or, if he felt his game was in order (and batsmen know these things almost immediately), to counter-attack, thereby transferring the pressure to New Zealand.

Both approaches were weighted with risk. In the first approach, considerable ground may have been ceded to the opposition, not ideal when batting first in conditions that allow quick-scoring.

In the second, Raina ran the risk of being seen as a fool. As his skipper said, he could have got out and looked really ugly.

Consider the fact that Raina isn’t a stranger to failure and its consequences, and you realise how difficult the choice was. Just 22, Raina has already had two careers in international cricket. He was the generously gifted teenager, waiting to become India’s next batting superstar, when Greg Chappell was coach.

Chappell’s assessment appears remarkable in hindsight, for Raina’s is a talent that doesn’t appeal immediately. The stiff front leg when driving through cover, causing the hands to force themselves at the ball often resulted in the bat passing the perpendicular when making contact.

So he rarely kept such strokes to ground. It was a vulnerability that looked particularly compromising when there was movement for the bowlers, either in the air or off the track.

Raina paid by losing his spot in India’s limited-overs squad. He was, in any case, competing with several others of similar standing. Fortunately he wasn’t lost in the systems fissures like his State senior Mohammed Kaif.

Big benefit

Last years IPL benefited Raina tremendously. The Chennai Super Kings must be commended for investing in him — obviously they saw something. The left-hander from Uttar Pradesh had the opportunity to better understand how Dhoni operated. Dhoni, in turn, could assess Raina from close quarters. Raina profited from Dhoni’s philosophy that a cricketer is best served playing his natural game. Simultaneously, Raina refined his instincts within the framework of his natural ability — all batting is reaction, indeed the zone batsmen allude to involves transcending conscious thought, but there is always room for conditioning, as long as it complements a batsman’s tendencies.

Dhoni liked what he saw in Raina. He returned to Indian colours in Bangladesh, and made two centuries and two half-centuries in the Asia Cup in Pakistan; Raina also played a vital role in tackling Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan when India won a rare ODI series in Sri Lanka last year. The upshot of all this is that the Raina of today is a more confident, better rounded batsman than the one who made his debut in 2005.

At Napier, the surety of Raina’s touch and his faith in his instincts were most impressive. He has a good thing going with the swing to deep mid-wicket, a stroke too secure and versatile to be classed a slog. It can handle a variety of lengths and lines and styles, for Raina sets himself well. Besides, it counterpoints his square-drive, another stroke that can find and clear the boundary.

As he showed in the first Twenty20 International in Christchurch, he can also hold an innings together. Not many return after being written off, and Raina, in breaking through a richly talented batting line-up for the second time, has done wonderfully well.