After Victory, Suresh Raina Sings Skipper Dhoni’s Praise... Again

“You can’t disrespect him and what he has achieved,” says Raina about his under-fire skipper.

Middle-order batsman Suresh Raina has once again come out in full support of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, saying the under-fire Indian skipper and his achievements “can’t be shown disrespect” and that he still has a lot of cricket left in him.

Man of the Match in India’s consolation win in the third and final ODI on Wednesday night, Raina defended his captain who has come in for criticism after leading a side that lost the first-ever ODI series to Bangladesh earlier this week.

“You can’t disrespect him and what he has achieved,” Raina said at the post-match press conference.

“He has won so many trophies for the BCCI. At the same time he’s a good human being, good honest man. One series can’t make him bad. He’s a good leader. Everyone loves him in the dressing room. There’s still a lot of cricket left for him. So just wait for some time.

“Losing just one series doesn’t make you a bad team. I think credit should be given to MS (Dhoni) with the way he led the team with the bat and then marshaled the side to this victory,” said the batting all-rounder, who blazed his way to a 21-ball 38 and then chipped in with three wickets.

Dhoni at Number Four

Having stuck to his role as finisher for a long time, Dhoni promoted himself up the order to try and lend India’s middle order some backbone.

Raina said, “The way he (Dhoni) has batted in the last two games has showed how important No. 4 is for him. He has taken a lot of responsibility over the years and he showed it today as well. He set the tone for us today with Shikhar.

“Me and Stuey (Binny) had a good partnership after the 40th over, you can execute (big shots) later on. Look at the kind of players we have. Look at Ambati Rayudu, he batted really well with MS also. So if you have a partnership of 70-80, then you can easily accelerate later on.”

All Rounder Raina

After finishing the match with his career-best bowling figures of 3/45, Raina also said he was happy to do whatever is asked of his bowling.

“I know what my role is as a bowler. Whether it is bowling two or three overs in the middle or go for a longer spell whatever the team thinks of me.

“We know Shakib (Al Hasan) and Mushfiqur (Rahim) have world of experience behind them. Shakib has been playing so long in IPL so he knows how to score in situations like these.

So taking those two wickets was very important,” added Raina, who scored 112 quick runs in three matches.