Suresh Raina praises Greg Chappell for instilling "Winning Mentality"

Raina lauds Chappell: Former Indian batsman Suresh Raina has been an honest man who’s given his honest assessments in the game over the years. Quite recently, Raina was all praise for the former Indian team head coach Greg Chappell.

Greg Chappell had been quite a controversial figure in India, as instances such as dropping Sourav Ganguly from the team, to having a bust up with people at the airport, and the early exit in the ICC World Cup of 2007 led to his downfall.

However, Suresh Raina begs to differ and talked about how Chappell instilled a sense of self belief in the team that worked in favor of plenty of players.

Despite the controversies, he taught India how to win says Raina

“In my opinion, Greg deserves a lot of credit for shaping that generation of Indian players. The fruits of the seeds he had sown were seen much later when we won the 2011 World Cup. I think somewhere along the line, despite all the controversies around his coaching career, he taught India how to win and the importance of winning.”

The Chennai Super Kings star man also talked about how Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid emphasized on the importance of chasing down challenging totals. To their credit, The Men in Blue were decently good to a certain degree as they won 14 games on the bounce while batting last at one stage.

“He (Greg Chappell) taught us to chase totals. We were all playing well at that point, but I remember him stressing a lot on breaking down run chases at batting meetings. The credit for that goes to both Greg and Rahul Bhai,” wrote Raina.

Sureh Raina made his debut for India in 2005 with Greg Chappell at the helm. In spite of all the noise during the Australian international’s tenure, Chappell did hand in opportunities to youngsters of the likes of MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.

Fixing up the batting line up

“Eventually, the batting order was fixed very well —Yuvi, Dhoni and me. By then, we had learnt how to take the pressure as well as the responsibility of chasing and winning. I picked up a lot of lessons from Greg,”

Suresh Raina announced his retirement in August 2020. Nevertheless, he still remains a vital member of the three time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Although the previous season was a poor one for the Yellow Army, CSK have bounced back in terrific manner in the first half of this season.

IPL 2021 Points Table

In terms of the standings, MS Dhoni and his men currently reside at the 2^nd spot with 10 points under their belts. Chennai Super Kings are just two points behind table toppers Delhi Capitals, and are on course of a spot in the play offs with seven more league games to play for.

IPL 2021 Schedule

The IPL 2021 first half was suspended due to the rising COVID-19 cases in India. But the action resumes in the UAE, with the date of start for IPL Phase 2 likely to be September 18. There are talks that the finals could be scheduled for October 18.

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