Regarded himself among the finest Indian fielders to have played at the highest level, out-of-favour batsman Suresh Raina named Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane as the best fielder in the current Indian team.
Raina heaped effusive praise on Rahane's ability to adjust to different positions in the field, especially how well he does the job in slips in Test match cricket.
"Ajinkya Rahane has better catching skills," said Raina in an interview on SportScreen. "I always love his positions while fielding. He has a different kind of power. His body can bend when he moves, that is very different from the rest."
Raina, who knows how difficult it is to concentrate every ball in the slips, lauded Rahane for making it look easy.
"He (Rahane) is a very good slip fielder, he judges the batsman’s movement from behind and anticipates, which is very important as the distance is not much between the slip fielder and batsman. He also practices like that so it makes it easier during matches," said the 2011 World Cup-winner.
Meanwhile, the 33-year-old, who most recently played for India in 2018, also reiterated the level of trust he had and continues to have on former skipper MS Dhoni. Raina, an integral part of Dhoni's team, enjoyed playing the aggressor's role in the white-ball set-up, taking confidence from the kind of clarity and consistency that the captain provided him.
"I never questioned him about it (being shuffled in the order as per situations)," said Raina, who plays under Dhoni in IPL as well for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). "I remember during the 2015 World Cup he sent me higher up the order to bat and I got 70-80 odd in that game."
"Later that evening I asked him, how and why did you think of sending me that high up and he said because they had two leg-spinners bowling and he knew that I would play them better. Even now I think about those occasions," he added.
(Inputs from HT)
