Raina bats for domestic cricket

Commenting on the importance of domestic cricket,Raina said,“ Domestic cricket holds a lot of importance for me. Despite my busy schedule at the international level,I make it a point to play domestic cricket whenever I get time for it. Though these days everyone wants to play in the IPL but domestic cricket gives you a chance to improve your performance.”

Raina said that UP team is a good combination of youth and experience. “The team has players like Parvinder Singh,RP Singh,Piyush Chawla,Tanmay Srivastava and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The youngsters have a good opportunity to learn from M Kaif and I hope that he scores runs. It is going to be an interesting match as the Harbhajan Singh-led Punjab team is also a balanced side full of all-rounders.”

Raina confided that though his busy fixtures keeps him away from his family but “he is happy with life because this is the time to work hard in order to achieve something. It feels very nice when you realise that you got an opportunity to play in the World Cup.”

Coaches confident

The coaches of the UP team are confident about the team’s prospects in the Ranji Trophy. Senior coach Gyanendra Pandey said the presence of Suresh Raina will have a positive impact on the team and he expected the team to do well as it was a balanced side.

UP team’s manager-cum-bowling coach Ashish Winston Zaidi said that “UP team has the best bowling attack in the domestic circuit. The bowlers are all fit and fine and ready to fire. I have an army of pacers with the UP team featuring top-class bowlers like RP Singh,Sudeep Tyagi and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. In the spin department we have a leg-spinner like Piyush Chawla. He is maintaining a very good line and length.” Regarding the team’s debacle in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy,Rizwan said,“Twenty20 is a different game where the bowler is under immense pressure to stop the runs. There a bowler has just four overs. Here things are not so.” Team’s batting coach Rizwan Shamshad too said that he expected a good show from the team.