'I Was 7-8 Years Old, He Gifted Me His Oakley': CSK's Sameer Rizvi Recalls First Meeting with Suresh Raina

Uttar Pradesh’s six-hitting menace Sameer Rizvi is excited to share the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) dressing room with his idol, the legendary MS Dhoni in the forthcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The right-hand batter bagged a lucrative deal worth INR 8.4 crore in the players’ auction last week in Dubai. And now looking forward to rubbing shoulders with some of the greats of the game in a few months.

Apart from Dhoni, Rizvi also admires former CSK all-rounder Suresh Raina who happens to be UP’s one of the most influential cricketers. Speaking with the franchise, the Meerut-based batter said he met Raina for the first time at the age of 7 and since then, he has been getting motivated by the former India cricketer.

“Back in 2011, when I was 7-8 years old, Raina was playing a Ranji Trophy game at the ground where I used to play. I was a ball boy in that game. Raina bhaiya was knocking and asked to bowl to him. So I would bowl and he would knock,” Rizvi said.

The young batter further revealed that Raina called him up to practice slip catching during the innings break and even gifted the 7-year-old Rizvi his sunglasses.

“After an innings, he was practicing slip catching and after some time, he called me up and put me along with him in the slip. There I met him for the first time and he gifted me his Oakley (sunglasses). That was my first meeting,” Rizvi added.

Rizvi caught the eyes of IPL talent scouts for the first time during the UP T20 League while playing for Kanpur Super Stars. He hammered 455 runs from nine matches including the fastest hundred in the tournament off 47 balls. Rizvi carried that form into the state Under-23 tournament where he smashed 454 runs from seven matches.

But more than those runs, it was Rizvi’s ability to clear the ropes by miles that fascinated the scouts. The young batter smoked 72 sixes across 16 matches in those tournaments.

“He has motivated me a lot. He even met me at the UPT20 as well and told me that I’m doing well and I would go places in my career. So, he told me to keep playing like that. Whenever I spoke to him, he has motivated me a lot,” Rizvi concluded.

(With Agency Inputs)