Suresh Raina

Lore & Background

Raina was born in Muradnagar, Uttar Pradesh. His family left Rainawari in Jammu and Kashmir amid the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus in the 1990s. He completed his schooling at a boarding school and moved to Lucknow in 1998 to attend Guru Gobind Singh Sports College. He married Priyanka on 3 April 2015 and has two children. Since 2023, he has owned and operated Raina Indian Restaurant in Bos en Lommer, Netherlands.

In Their Own Story

The evening air at the stadium was thick with the smell of cut grass and the low hum of a crowd that had been waiting all season for a left-hander to make them feel something. Raina walked to the crease, tapped the bat twice on the pitch, and the noise shifted — that particular hush that falls when a batter you trust steps in. The first ball was a full off-cutter. He didn't commit. The second, a little shorter, angled into the off side. And there it was: the soft hands, the reverse sweep, the ball rolling away to midwicket for a single that looked effortless. The Delhi end let out a breath they hadn't known they were holding. From that run, the innings had a pulse, a rhythm, a sense that the game was no longer being played against him but with him. By the time he walked back, the crowd's chant was already forming, half-song, half-prayer, a sound that would live in the memory of everyone who was there that night.

Reader's Guide

Raina played for Chennai Super Kings throughout his IPL career, and later for Gujarat Lions after the suspension of CSK in 2016. He captained Gujarat Lions in 2016. He was retained by the returning Super Kings in 2018 for 11 crore. He became the first batsman to score 5000 runs in the IPL on 23 March 2019. He withdrew from the 2020 IPL season after his uncle was assaulted and died. He went unsold in the 2022 IPL Auctions and announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on 6 September 2022. He then became a commentator.

Did You Know?

• Raina is the first Indian batsman to score a century in all three formats of international cricket.
• He scored the first T20I century by an Indian, against South Africa in the 2010 T20 World Cup.
• He was named in the all-time ESPNcricinfo IPL XI on the 10-year anniversary of the IPL.
• Raina holds an honorary doctorate from Vels University.