Updated Cricket News - Suresh Raina counting on improvement in the ODIs

Dissatisfied to see the Test side being demolish by a revitalized Australia, Indian middle-order batsman, Suresh Raina is counting on varying his team’s fortunes in forthcoming ODI series Down Under.


In another one sided concern away from home, the Men in Blue were dishonored by a 4-0 margin, on the lines of the same script which saw them capitulating against England, six months back. Back then Raina feature in the Test series but was left out after his technique next to bounce, came under scrutiny.

However, the ODI format offers release for the World Cup winners and the left-hander is keen to put on a good show to make certain that his side quickly recovers from extraordinary criticism.

“The one-dayers and Twenty20 games will go in a different way to how the Tests went. Hopefully we will give you positive results. In the World Cup we beat Australia in the quarter-final and optimistically we will do well against Australia again," said Raina.

Changes have been made to the squad which sees Test specialists such as Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Wriddhiman Saha and Pragyan Ojha jetting back home, making way for the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar and Raina, to take the added task of humanizing their away form.

The team will first battle the hosts in two T20s before featuring in the triangular series against Australia and Sri Lanka. While the Indians have been inspiring in the limited over front in new times, their successes have mainly come on their own backyard.

Their last away performance next to the English side resulted on a winless note but the flamboyant middle-order batsman has strained the importance of the series for the younger group, gearing to take substantial experience, which in turn will help them get ready for the 2015 World Cup, staged Down Under.

“There are a lot of youngsters who have come from India. They have played good first-class cricket and done very well at home. I played three four domestic matches and got a double century," he said. “We will play 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and the same youngsters would advantage a great deal.”