Suresh Raina, the left-handed Indian middle order batsman will not feature in India’s first ODI agaist New Zealand here in Dharamsala on Sunday. In a tweet, BCCI confirmed that the UP batsman was suffering from viral fever and that it was highly unlikely that he will be fit in time for the series opener.
Suresh Raina was selected into the Indian team after being dropped from ODIs against Australia and Zimbabwe. The series against South Africa, which last saw Raina play for India, wasn’t a memorable one for the middle order batsman as he failed miserably.
Due to the same illness, Suresh Raina could also not feature in the first Ranji game of the season for his home team. UP lost their Ranji season opener by an innings and 64 runs.
With the tweet, the Board of Control for Cricket in India also mentioned that no replacement for Suresh Raina was being announced. However, seems like Mandeep Singh might get his India debut in absence of Raina for the first ODI. Mandeep featured in the T20I Series against Zimbabwe and had scores of 31*, 52 and 4.