Former Australian chinaman spinner Brad Hogg reckons Suresh Raina might not play for the national team. Hogg believes Virat Kohli is backing youngsters in the side and there are fewer chances that Raina would be able to make a comeback into the Indian team. The southpaw batsman last played in the Indian colours back in 2018 against England in the T20I series.
However, Raina feels he didn’t get his deserved chances and there was no kind of communication from the selectors when he was dropped from the side.
Meanwhile, Hogg believes there is no space in the middle-order for Suresh Raina as batsmen like Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul have grabbed their opportunities with both hands. Hogg added that Raina can not bat in the lower order and he is more suited to bat at number three or four. Thus, the former spinner doesn’t see any role for the southpaw batsman.
“If you look at Indian line-up right now, where Virat Kohli wants to take it, he is looking at youngsters at the moment. And Shreyas Iyer has done reasonably well at no. 4 and that is where Raina is going to bat. I don’t see him batting lower down the order. He’s more of the batsman that comes in at no.3 or 4 and bats through the middle overs. I don’t think there is a role for him in Indian cricket,” Hogg said on his YouTube channel while answering one of the questions from a fan.
Hogg feels there is only one way that Raina can get back into the T20 side. The former left-arm spinner feels if India opens with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul whereas they drop Shikhar Dhawan, then there could be a chance that Raina can bat in the middle order.
Meanwhile, Suresh Raina has been a consistent performer and he has done well for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. Raina, who is the second-highest run-getter in the IPL with 5368 runs in 193 IPL matches, has started training in his academy in Ghaziabad with Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Shami and Piyush Chawla.
Raina will need to produce impressive numbers in the forthcoming IPL to make a case for himself to be selected for the national team. The left-hander has scored 5615 runs in 226 ODI matches at an average of 35.31 whereas he has accumulated 1608 runs in 78 T20I matches at an average of 29.16.
