Suresh Raina looks in brilliant form with bat this year and has come out with flying colours in this series against England. He scored his third successive half-century and has come out to be a match-winner as well as match-finisher for Team India.

Add to it his excellent fielding in 30-yard circle, apart from his running between the wickets and his ability to bat with lower order batsmen, all these qualities make him much more valuable for his captain, MS Dhoni.

He has worked on his shortcomings against short-balls in the nets and tried to rectify his technique with the help of coaching staff and team management. His commitment to hard work and his dedication to improve his technique is very much visible in his shot selection. He doesn’t feel uncomfortable against short-balls anymore and that is visible in the manner he tries to negotiate the rising deliveries.

Raina is having a dream run at present. Apart from scoring three back-to-back half-centuries in this series, he had also scored three match-winning half-centuries against Sri Lanka in 2012.

The thing which was very much missing from his armoury earlier was his consistency and now when he has added that to his weaponry, he is consistently delivering for his team, playing till the last ball and has been avoiding committing mistakes.

Raina is a real game changer for Team India as he can come at difficult situation to bat for long time and even bowl a few overs when needed. He is ready to bat at any spot as per the situation demands. He has set his own standards in Indian team in terms of batting and fielding.
 
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network