One has to agree that if it's one-day cricket, you can’t afford to leave out Suresh Raina - flamboyant, charismatic and a nightmare for the opposition. Over the years, Raina has proven his class in limited-overs cricket with his sheer ability to change the course of the game and to chip in with a few wickets and electric fielding.
An attacking left-hander who goes for the big shots with impunity and clears the field with a swashbuckling flourish when at the top of his game, Raina didn't take long to climb the ladders in the Indian dressing room and became an integral part of the new-age team.
Since making his ODI debut in 2005, it took Raina five years to cement his place in the Indian team, moving from a limited-overs specialist who played 98 ODIs to one who became the 12th Indian to make a Test century on debut. Raina soon became one of captain MS Dhoni's most trusted commandos and a man the fans would pin their hopes on.
However, as they say, cricket is a great leveller and life is like a circle. You come back to the same place where it all started. And then you start respecting things even more when you return to that same place which perhaps you didn’t do earlier.
At this time, Raina seems to be slowly slipping out of Indian team. Though he has got the backing of the captain Dhoni and the team management, Ravi Shastri in particular, it will not be long before the left-hander is shown the exit door if the current poor form continues.
The Uttar Pradesh left-hander was dismissed for ducks in the last two games after scoring 3 in the series opener at Kanpur. He did not have a great time in the preceding T20 series as well against South Africa.
With scores of 14 and 22 in T20s and 3, 0, 0 in ODIs, Raina is averaging 1.00 in the series - his tally being three runs in three innings - worst performance in a series.
Raina's second duck against the Proteas is his 14th in ODIs. For the first time, he has registered successive ducks - Indore and Rajkot games.
With more than a decade of experience and having played 221 one-dayers, Raina is no longer an up and coming youngster who can get away with his poor form and is expected to decide big games in a consistent manner.
Over and over again he has failed to capitalise on the good starts where he would get off the blocks in a promising manner and then get dismissed in the most excruciating manner possible, leaving everybody frustrated.
Cricket is more of a mind game and in order to succeed, a player has to be temperamentally sound, a quality Raina needs to work on in order to become a successful cricketer.
Needs to spend more time
"More than the form he needs to give himself a bit more time. He's gone in and played the big shots. Whenever you go in you actually have more time than what you think. It's important for him to play a few deliveries," said Dhoni after the loss at the 3rd ODI.
"It's not easy to straightaway play the big shots. He [Raina] needs to give himself a bit more time as it becomes difficult to find people who can clear the big outfield. My personal feeling is he needs to give himself a bit more time and everything will be fine," said the captain.
One benefit of doubt that can be given to Raina is that he had a good World Cup and the fact that he bats at 5 or 6. The critics must be more patient with anyone who bats at that number.
Raina needs to find a way to carve a niche for himself or else he will remain India's most promising but unfulfilled talents for the rest of his life. Time and tide wait for none and Raina is no exception.
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