Dhoni and I Discussed Playing vs Each Other: Raina

[Girish]

There's always a first time, and nobody knows that better than Suresh Raina. After playing under MS Dhoni at Chennai Super Kings, he will don the captain's hat when Gujarat Lions start their IPL campaign. On Tuesday, as the new franchise formally named him as skipper, Raina admitted that the next few months are going to be extremely crucial. Excerpts...

I am honoured to have been chosen for this role. We already have some of the best cricketing talent in the team and I look forward to the challenges, opportunity, excitement and energy. I will lead from the front to ensure that we have a great debut.


I am excited about the auctions, but we need to sit with coach Brad (Hodge) and the owner to decide on the strategy. I urge everyone to support Gujarat Lions, which is the first IPL team from the region. A lot of youngsters are coming up, and it will be about playing fearless cricket.

Dhoni and I have played quite a few finals together. It will be a challenge to stop him from playing the helicopter shot. In Australia, both of us were even talking about the fact that we will be in different teams this time, but it will be fun. Just imagine (Ravindra) Jadeja celebrating the dismissal of Dhoni! But to be honest, I played with the greatest captain for CSK and came out as a better man.

No matter which opposition you play, it's important for us to beat them on their home turf. Since we thumped Australia, we are now World No 1 in T20s. The win was a testimony that we prepared well. We will have an extra edge going into the World T20. Captain (Dhoni) and the support staff deserve credit for this, and it showed that we prepared well.

I have learnt a lot of good things from Yuvi pa. In the last T20, where we needed 17 runs off the last over, he took the pressure off with a four and six. After I got a couple, he said he believed I will finish it off. So Yuvraj, Dhoni and I in the middle-order have the experience required.

Dhoni and I Discussed Playing vs Each Other: Raina