Harsha, Wasim praise Raina
ESPN STAR Sports' experts Harsha Bhogle and Wasim Akram have praised Suresh Raina saying he had started to show his true colours.
Raina cracked his second one-day century on Saturday against Bangladesh and helped his side notch up another "incredible" win in the STAR Cricket Asia Cup.
"Raina is getting better day by day and his inclusion has strengthened the Indian one-day team," Wasim told Mobile ESPN. He recollected that Ravi Shastri had told him about the "new kid on the block" a couple of years ago and was happy to note that "he is showing his true colours".
The former Pakistan skipper said that India was high on confidence and faced no problem in spite of losing the toss and even while chasing a 280 plus target.
"They lost an early wicket, but then Gautam (Gambhir) and Raina put on a great partnership. Gautam, in fact, looked like he had been practising when he walked in because he got off to a fluid start," said Akram.
He added that Bangladesh did not help themselves by dropping catching. "But even if they had held on to those, India has a deep batting lineup."
Akram also praised skipper MS Dhoni's rotation policy.
"Rotation policy is a great thing; different combinations are being tried. In case there is an injury at the last minute, any one can take their place because everyone has match practice," he said.
Harsha, while praising both Gambhir's and Raina's attacking cricket, sounded a cautious note about India's bowling.
"India is facing problem with their new ball bowlers, even though Ishant bowled well in this match," he told Mobile ESPN.
"At 56 for two in 10 overs, the match could have gone any way, but Bangladesh just failed to hold on to the catches and Gautam and Raina put on great attacking great," he added.
Bhogle was also impressed with spinner Pragyan Ojha's debut, who took two wickets and also held on to three catches at a time "when everyone else was dropping theirs".
The expert analyst was extremely appreciative of Alok Kapali's knock of 115 that came of 96 balls and said it was a "coming of age innings" from the Bangladesh player.
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