When a batsman plays 189 matches, he is often considered an automatic choice in the playing eleven. As of now, Suresh Raina is enjoying this luxury in the Indian team, but considering his consistent failures of late, one wonders for how often. On Saturday at Auckland, he was once again dismissed after getting a start, which now means he doesn’t have a half-century in one-dayers since his unbeaten 65 against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo on August 1, 2013. Further, his last half-century against a Test playing nation came almost a year back, against England at Dharamsala on January 27, 2013.
While these figures are worrying, the repetitive manner of his dismissals is even more concerning. The left-hander has got a number of starts in recent matches, but more often than not has fallen to the short ball. It is almost a given now that you bowl a short ball at Raina and sooner or later he will perish unable to deal with the rising delivery. Bowlers the world over are aware of Raina’s weakness against the short ball, and even MS Dhoni has admitted that the batsman needs to work on his technique.
In spite of the obvious being stated so often, Raina once again perished to the short ball at Auckland as well. When a batsman has played international cricket for over eight years, he is expected to make some sort of modifications to his style of play. While it is too late in the day for Raina to change his technique, it is surprising that he hasn’t figured a way out to deal with the rising delivery in spite of having been given so many chances. His inability to play the short ball is one of the key reasons his Test career failed to kick off, and now his ODI spot is also under threat.
Raina is not the first batsman to be undone by the short ball. In fact, the best of batters have had their task cut out against the rising delivery over the years. But, they survived since they found out a way to deal with the same. It did not always look aesthetic, but did the trick. Steve Waugh for example managed to keep the ball to ground by using soft hands. He was mostly airborne, and in an awkward position, but rarely fell to the short delivery.
The Indian left-hander will have to work out something similar. He cannot allow too many short balls to go run-less, which means he will have to play a shot against the rising ball. But, before that he must figure out a way wherein his chances of getting out while playing the stroke are minimal. As of now, he tries to leave a couple and then attempts to pull or hook one without any authority. Not surprisingly, most of the times he ends up finding the fielder. Unless he finds an effective way out of his short ball woes, Raina’s ODI career might also hit a roadblock.
--By A Cricket Analyst
