Amidst the glare from the stars that shine above him, Suresh Raina's humble glow is often missed by us all. So much so, that he rarely earns a dissection in the same tray as his illustrious peers, or a discussion of the same class as reserved for them. Yesterday, he played a crucial innings once again but wasn't quite dominating the minds of people. Maybe Parnell and Steyn's heroics, or Jadeja's with the ball, substantially erased the memories of his innings earlier on. That he played a critical innings is not in doubt, but I was left wondering why is it that he doesn't stick in my mind.
There isn't anything wrong in the way he plays. His game isn't lacking in style either. But his game doesn't arrest our attention the way a Yuvraj innings does. Nor do they stay in our memories. I found myself asking why yesterday. While I shall place some of the answers I gave myself later in this article, I was also motivated to look up and see what Raina does in the Indian team. To understand what he means to the team structure and gameplan. And how far he has fulfilled it. In a sense I was trying to find Raina's identity in the Indian team. Trying to define for myself what his role is. Perhaps then his persona could stand out from the rest.
However, all that doesn't mean that we do not have expectations of him - he is always counted as a batsman in the order who can take India to its destiny of the day, if it is so deemed that only he must. But he doesn't strike you glaringly with his importance to the team.
I have used seven graphics to illustrate. I must warn that they are all large graphics, some in the range of 2000 px X 1200 px. They must be clicked to enlarge. I found no other way to bring all the stats together.
What I discovered was a little more than I bargained for, and in places appeared to support some of my apprehensions about him.
Let us take a look at his career stats as on 22 February, 2010 to kick off.
The bare stats to kick it off - 88 matches, 2165 runs at an average of 37.98 earned at a strike rate of 88.72 with 3 hundreds and 15 fifties wih a highest score of 116*.
There is very little to choose between his home and away stats, with his home average better than his away one while his strike rate away is better than at home. But the curious part is neutral venues - they, in entirety, are a cut above his home and awy stats. In fact all his three hundreds are in neutral venue situations. His conversion rate is in the opposite direction here. Also, his average and batting strike rates are drastically better that the other two venue situations.
Is it that he is vulnerable to both home and away pressure? Perhaps neutral venues take away that pressure from him? One other reason could be that at home, other batsmen leave little for him to do. But how should that affect his strike rate or even average adversely? Not Outs should be a factor too. One problem however is that his career is still young. The numbers are such that they could change either way with a corresponding performance at this stage. So we must tread carefully with generalising from them, always keeping in mind that there could be ups and downs as he continues to play, before settling at a plateau level evenually.
There is an over 36 point positive difference between his performances in wins and in losses. One conclusion could be that when he scores, it goes a long way in contributing to his team's victory. One needs to split this further down to see how other batsmen performed in those matches, and in what situations Raina's performances came. Were they an appendage to good performances by preceding batsmen or were his innings a major force on their own?
Examining his performances in wins tells us that his performace is better than overall in all respects.
The majority percentage of innings played and runs scored have been in winning causes. Two out of three hundreds and as many as thirteen of his fifteen half-centuries are in winning causes. His average and strike rate are also higher.
An important stat is that 13 out of his 15 Not Outs are also in winning causes.
Why is that important? Why are NOs important?
If we see the first graphic again, the bulk of his career is built around the no.6 position. That is where he has scored most of his runs. From there, it is expected that he will 'finish' the innings without further stress to the team. Therefore, it stands to reason that he must also remain Not Out to be a good 'finisher'. Goes without saying that scored runs and the rate at which they come are also important.
It appears that when he gets all these things together, India wins more often than losing the match. So is that the designated role for him in the team? That of a 'finisher'? But if that is so, we find that after no.6 position, he has been played most often at no.3. That is the position for a 'builder', not a 'finisher'. That is not his forte yet it appears. Hs pivotal positions are nos 6,5 and 4.
So we are getting the ense of him as a 'finisher' rather than a 'builder'...the man who provides the burst at the end...the man who shepherds India to the line if the top order collapses, and so on along this theme.
But does he really do that? How often is he in this situation and what is the frequency with which he abandons the team in addition to those successes? We'll need to delve here...
Since we have identified his Good Spot as no.6, let us see what he does there.
Plenty of starred high scores (denoting not outs) and high strike rates there. Justifying the purpose of his playing there.
It was when I began to explore this batting position no.6 performances that I was surprised by what I found.
I decided to see how he compares with India's all-time no.6 performers.
To make the stats meaningful, I arbitrarily decided that a player must have played at least 20 innings at no.6 to be called a regular no.6 player.
One doesn't expect him to have many runs yet in his career, but that's the first surprise. Under the criteria that a batsman must have played at least 20 innings at that spot to be considered a true no.6, we find that Raina is already sixth in the list of top scorers for India at that spot. In the middle plate of the graphic, we find that in terms of averaged he is the top-ranked! He and Dhoni, who is next, have a realtively higher percentage of Not Outs in comparison to Kapil Dev and Robin Singh and others. That means they stay till the end...or suggests so. And not uselessly in losses, but mostly in games won.
The third plate to the extreme right shows that Raina is second only to Kapil Dev in terms of strike rate at this position for India...and at a far better average! So this player is offering the thrust of a Kapil Dev for India along with bulk of runs per innings. Raina is just about 350 runs from Kapil Dev in about 50 ODIs fewer at this position. That's a perspective...now how would it be if he could bowl usefully too? He is beginning to bowl, but more of that much later.
Naturally, from here one wished to see how he compares on the world scene at this Finsher's Spot.
We applied the same condition that a player would have to have played at least 20 innings at that spot to be considered a true no.6. We are restricted to such a figure to avoid being too selective as to omit significant performers.
I didn't expect him to be there on the first page of top run scorers under this criteria. But there he was...Suresh Raina, currently sandwiched between Craig McMillan and Gus Logie. The middle plate in the graphic surprised me a bit. His strike rate is good enough to be in the top ten all time for this position under the described selection criteria. But like I said earlier, in relative terms to some of the players on that list, his career is still young and wide fluctuations can happen with corresponding performances.
The third plate reveals his average at no.6 to be second only to Michael Bevan among batsmen who have played at least 20 ODI innings or more at this position! I was gobsmacked by this. It highlighted exactly what I said earlier...this lad's glow is lost among the stars which surround him.
We can go deeper in different directions...when and if you have the time and an inclination to dig for treasure, you can extend the search and study in the direction you wish and add to the conclusions or qualify them further. You could look for performances which contribute to wins and stuff like that for all these players...
On a whim, seeing that Raina's main positions are 6,5 and 4, where he is successful, I decided to have a go at the middle-order stats. I looked up the consolidated figures for positions 4 to 7, defined as the middle order of a line-up, first for India and then among all teams.
I was truly surprised. I didn't think there would be so few players if I applied the criteria that a batsman should have played at least 20 innings at these positions. I thought there'd be loads who have played at those positions for India. Raina comes in at no.11 for India in terms of runs scored.
Azza tops with over 7000 runs in the middle order and Raina is a stone's thow away from Robin Singh and within reach of a few other players who he should overhaul this year itself - form persisting, that is.
The middle plate shows the average - MSD is first followed by Raina among all middle order batsmen who have played 20 or more innings from no.4 to 7 for India in all time! This shows that India's batting depth is greater now than ever before. Especially when you consider that only Ajay Jadeja out of the top five will not be a certainity at 2011 World Cup. Nos 4-7 are well served with Dravid, Yuvi, Raina and MSD.
And Suresh Raina is no slouch in scoring his runs at these positions. As the third plate of that graphic shows, he rubs shoulders comfortably with some classic attacking players of India. His strike rate for the middle order is 90.91 and fourth overall for India among those with a tolerable density of innings there.
Looking at the world picture, we have the next graphic plate.
It was pointless having a plate on the runs scored because that would take up a lot of bytes. Raina was on the second page (midway on the 50th-100th player page) of run scorers at these positions among all players with at least 20 innings at these spots. His tally is bound to swell, and by next year he should be on page one of this selection.
But what about the averages and strike rates in the middle order-finishers' rancho?
In strike rates, Suresh Raina is currently 17th for middle order batsmen. For a perspective, ahead of Yuvraj, both Husseys - M and D, Flintoff, KP and MSD, and Abdul Razzaq or Mark Boucher in the same positions!
In terms of averages, Raina is 15th in the all-time list of middle order batsmen who have played at least 20 innings at nos 4,5,6 and 7 - just behind IVA Richards and ahead of Heschelle Gibbs and Javed Miandad and Andrew Symonds!
How's that for a surprise! I was blown for I didn't quite realize this. But caution....another 50-60 games and then we can be a lot safer in our conjectures.
To round off the evening, I decided to see what was happening at this position in contemporary times. In the past two years at no.6, selecting those batsmen who have played at least 5 innings at this position ( because not all teams are playing many games) in the past two years, we have this graphic as a set of three plates again.
Raina emerges as the leading scorer at this position. he is second to Voges in averages. Voges has played about a fourth of matches Raina has played. He is fifth in strike rates, going at over 100 - or more than run-a-ball in thse two years at no.6.
