Raina! Autograph, please

RED T-SHIRT. Jeans. White shoes. But, no bat! And his female guests shout, “he looks good and plays well too.”

Young Shaira gushed about Team India star Suresh Raina, when she met the stunning young Raina at a function on Thursday night. Another teenager, Sangeeta, lauded the game (and of course, looks!) of the new charmer boy in the Indian team.

But, such flattering comments made no difference to Raina, who remained loyal to the gentlemen’s game even when asked to comment on the effect he had on the two ladies at the cocktail dinner at Genesis Club.

“I am working hard as per my plans to tackle any situation at West Indies and I am confident of a good show there,” said Raina. His simple and straight comment was clearly indicative of focused the 19-year-old is. His simplicity floored the 50-odd special guests on the lawns of the club. He didn’t make a dramatic entry, rather just walked in, sporting a red T-shirt, jeans and white shoes. He met each and every individual at the party and signed autographs for kids, but soon got chatting with some close friends. A slide show on Raina displaying his other side, as a model in designer cloths with eye-catching footage of his matches against England in the recent home series and against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi, was the main highlight of the evening, which was arranged by his event management company Mega Trends Advertising.

Expressing confidence in his training at the cemented wicket, Raina admitted that he had done his homework to handle the pressure on the fast pitches in West Indies.

Before he could finish his ‘date’ with TV scribes, he was asked to react to the reported comments of former Indian skipper Dilip Vengsarkar, who attributed Raina as the India team captain in 2011 World Cup. An experienced Raina, attributed it to the team’s strength and good show in the recent past.

“We have a very good side with a blend of youth and experienced and all youngsters are getting good support from skipper Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell,” said Raina, who admitted that the entire team was doing well these days and he was expecting similar shows in West Indies too.

Among the special invites Ajay Jain, Ajay Tulsi, PM Singhvi, Ashish Ghildiyal, M Hegde, Pankaj Sharma, Rajesh Takndon etc. spent a very good evening with their dream cricketer Raina, who didn’t wait too long and made a quick exit much before the end of the party.