Suresh Raina names MS Dhoni the toughest bowler he faced in nets

Dhoni has a wicket to his name in ODIs and has bowled 96 balls in Tests.

Suresh Raina | GettyFormer India skipper MS Dhoni left a huge impact on the game with his leadership skills, finishing abilities and certainly the wicket-keeping.

While Dhoni wasn’t known for his bowling, he used to roll his arms over in the nets every now and then.

On occasions, Dhoni also removed his keeping gloves and bowled in international cricket. In fact, he has a wicket to his name in ODIs and has bowled 96 balls in Tests, once almost picking the prized scalp of Kevin Pietersen.

Now, former India batter Suresh Raina has hailed Dhoni as the toughest bowler he has faced in the nets during his playing career.

Raina played under Dhoni’s captaincy for India and in the Indian Premier League for Chennai Super Kings.

Speaking on JioCinema, the southpaw was asked to name the toughest bowler and he replied: "I think Muralitharan and Malinga, but in the nets, it was MS Dhoni. If he got you out in the nets, then you’d not be able to sit with him for one and a half months because he’d keep gesturing and remind how he got you out.”

“He’d bowl off-spin, medium pace, leg spin, everything. In the nets, he would even justify his front foot no-balls (laughs). Wherever he’d get a red cherry in a Test match, he’d go for it. In England, he’d swing it full throttle," he further said.

Suresh Raina played an instrumental role in making Team India a dominant force in white-ball cricket.

In 226 ODIs, Raina amassed 5615 runs at an average of 35.31 and a strike rate of 93.51 with five hundreds and 36 fifties. He also featured in 78 T20Is and scored 1604 runs at a strike rate of 134.79, including a century.

The left-hander was also part of the Indian team that won the ODI World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 28 Jun, 2023

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