Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina (born 27 November 1986 ) is an Indian former international cricketer.

He occasionally served as stand-in captain for Indian men's national cricket team as well as in IPL for Chennai Super Kings during the absence of the main captain, MS Dhoni.

He played for Uttar Pradesh (UP) in domestic cricket circuit.

He is an aggressive left-handed middle-order batsman and an occasional off-spin bowler.

He is the second-youngest player ever to captain India.

He was the captain of Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and he also served as vice-captain of the Chennai Super Kings.

He is the first Indian batsman to hit a century in all three formats of international cricket.

Suresh Kumar Raina was born in Muradnagar of Uttar Pradesh on 27 November 1986 into a Kashmiri Pandit family, to parents from Rainawari, Srinagar district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Raina lives in the Rajnagar neighborhood of Ghaziabad city.

He has an older brother, Dinesh Raina.

He studied in a boarding school.

In 2000, Raina decided to play cricket and subsequently moved from his hometown Muradnagar, Ghaziabad district to Lucknow, to attend the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow.

He rose to become the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s and came to prominence amongst Indian selectors in 2002 when he was selected at the age of 15 1⁄2 years for the U-19 tour to England, where he made a pair of half-centuries in the U-19 Test matches.

He toured Sri Lanka later that year with the U-17 team.

He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam in February 2003 at the age of 16 but did not play another match until the following season.

In late 2003, he toured Pakistan for the U-19 Asian ODI Championship before being selected for the 2004 U-19 World Cup, where he scored three half-centuries, including a 90 scored off only 38 balls.

He debuted in List A Cricket against Madhya Pradesh at Indore in 2005 and scored 16 runs.

He played for India green, UP under 16, India Blue, India Red, Rest of India, India under 19, Indian board's president's XI, Rajasthan Cricket association's president's XI, India seniors, Central zone.

In Ranji trophy 2005-06 season he scored 620 in 6 games.

He was then awarded a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy and in early 2005, he made his first-class limited overs debut, and scored 645 runs that season at an average of 53.75.

Raina made history being the first Indian to score a century in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, which he did with his 101 runs against South Africa at the 2010 Tournament.

Raina was awarded "best fielder" by the BCCI ahead of the finals of IPL 2010.

He played a vital half-century which turned the final to Chennai's tide who ultimately went on to become the champions beating the Mumbai Indians.

For his performances in 2010, he was named in the ESPNcricinfo IPL XI.

During his time with India, he won the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

For his performances in 2013, he was named in the ESPNcricinfo CLT20 XI.

On 30 May 2014, he made 87 runs out of 25 balls against Kings XI Punjab in qualifier 2.

He missed the fastest century of the cricketing history by just 13 runs due to a runout.

For his performances in 2014, he was named in the ESPNcricinfo IPL XI and ESPNcricinfo CLT20 XI.

In 2016, Raina was signed for the Gujarat Lions after the suspension of CSK.

He captained the team for the season, and remained consistent with batting, scoring 399 runs in 15 innings.

Raina had to leave for the Netherlands in between of season 9 for birth of his first child thus making him miss his first ever match in nine seasons of IPL.

On the occasion of the 10 year anniversary of IPL, he was also named in the all-time ESPNcricinfo IPL XI.

He was named in the Cricbuzz IPL XI of the tournament for 2017.

In 2018 Akshdeep Nath replaced him as UP's Ranji trophy captain due to poor performance of scoring 105 runs in 9 innings averaging 11.66.

In IPL 2018, Raina was retained by the returning Super Kings for a price tag of 11 crore ($1.7 million).

During the second game of the tournament, Raina suffered a calf injury, due to which he was ruled out of the next two games.

On 15 August 2020, Raina announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket.

He pulled out of the 2020 Indian Premier League due to personal reasons.

On 6 September 2022, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, including IPL and domestic cricket.