Suresh Kumar Raina

Suresh Raina represents the new age Indian cricketer. An attacking left-hander who goes for the big shots with impunity and clears the field with a swashbuckling flourish when at the top of his game, Raina is also equally capable of attracting applause as an electric fielder in the circle. It has taken him five years to cement his place as an India regular, moving from a limited-overs specialist who played 98 ODIs to one who became the 12th Indian to make a Test century on debut. Raina made his Test debut in Sri Lanka as a replacement for injured team-mate Yuvraj Singh, who, like Raina, was a left-hander, a dasher, and in the early 2000s, India's most athletic fielder. With the Test spot finally earned and a growing ability to spend long hours at the crease and see a crisis through, Raina may think of 2009-10 as the season of his turnaround.

Raina's ability to split the field and discover gaps where fielders could not be placed earned him high praise when he first burst through to play for India in December 2006. The early years, however, were marked by a stack of attractive cameos in ODIs, but only a handful emphatic performances that changed the course of games. A string of 15 ODIs without a half-century found Raina being dropped from the national team, missing out on the 2007 World Cup and falling off the selectors' radar.

An 18-month gap from international cricket had Raina producing a mountain of runs in domestic cricket before he marked his return to the Indian team in the Asia Cup in June 2008 with two centuries and the second-highest aggregate in the tournament. The last three years have been Raina's most prolific, with three centuries and 12 of his 15 ODI fifties, and a growing stature in the line-up as one of India's responsible gen-next batsmen.

His tenacity at the worst of times is typical of someone who has spent his teenage years living away from home in the demanding world of the Uttar Pradesh sports hostel, where a lack of facilities or grooming produces cricketers who must match talent with determination. At the under-19 level, Raina was prodigious with his run-scoring and a string of double-hundreds took him to the Indian junior team and beyond it, to India colours. For a player of his ability, though, India must hope that Raina's best innings are still to be played
Suresh Kumar Raina

Born November 27, 1986, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Current age 23 years 310 days

Major teams India, Chennai Super Kings, India Blue, India Under-19s, Indian Board President's XI, Rajasthan Cricket Association President's XI, Uttar Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Under-16s

Also known as Sanu

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak