Suresh Raina reveals three young India players to have impressed him, Rishabh Pant misses out

New Delhi, July 11: Young India cricketer Rishabh Pant isn't amongst the young bunch of players to have impressed former India cricketer Suresh Raina. Raina - who was part of the 2011 World Cup-winning Indian side and hailed as one of the best middle-order batsman for India in the limited-overs - has named the three young players who've impressed him.

Pant is termed one of the finest talents in Indian cricket and his performances lately but the wicketkeeper-batsman hasn't impressed much.

While talking about three young guns who have left him impressed, the 34-year-old - in an interview with News24 - said, "I think Devdutt Padikkal from Karnataka. After him, Ruturaj Gaikwad from Maharashtra. He is a gun player. Axar Patel has worked really hard, and he performed brilliantly well in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja."

Raina backed his opinion citing Pant isn't a new lad on the side and that his game has changed a lot. "See, he has entered the senior category. He's grown. He is also hitting fours now and not only sixes," he explained.

Raina also picked young pacer Mohammed Siraj's rise in international cricket and credited former India cricketer-turned coach Rahul Dravid for his contribution towards Indian cricket.

Dravid, who is now working as an acting coach for the senior national team on the tour of Sri Lanka, has shaped up the career of several promising young cricketers as the coach of the India A and Under-19 teams. As the NCA chief, Dravid continues to work towards its development and Raina offered his wishes to India's limited-overs side ahead of their series and sent his best wishes to captain Shikhar Dhawan.

"Even Mohammed Siraj is bowling so well. And somewhere I feel credit goes to Rahul Dravid who has worked extremely hard with the Under-19 team which is why he is with the senior team now and my best wishes to Shikhar Dhawan, that he does well and return to the Test team because he too is a very big player for India and he must be hoping to perform well in Sri Lanka," Raina added.

While listing out the fringe players, outside the national side, who impressed him, Raina said, "Then definitely Priyam Garg from Uttar Pradesh. Karn Sharma is another player from Uttar Pradesh who has performed really well. From Punjab, there is Abhishek Sharma, who has impressed me a lot. Sachin Baby is also putting in a lot of hard-work."