Wellington, March 6 NZPA - The cricketing reputations of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar preceded them long before they returned to toy with New Zealand's bowlers.

But Suresh Raina has emerged out of left field as a batting threat on this tour, two quickfire half centuries indicating the 22-year-old will be problematic long after his illustrious teammates retire.

Classed in the mould of another current Indian batting stalwart Yuvraj Singh, Raina has made an immediate impression on his first visit to New Zealand.

Raina, little-known here but a veteran of 60 ODIs before landing, has proved a lightning fast and adaptable scorer.

In his first innings against New Zealand he enabled India to post a respectable total when making an unbeaten 61 off 43 balls in the opening Twenty20 in Christchurch.

He peppered the stands with five sixes; the next best score was Sehwag's 26.

Raina's lone hand was not enough to prevent New Zealand winning by seven wickets but he shaped as a player to watch.

He missed out in Wellington with a four-ball duck but joined the run deluge in Napier with an inventive 66 from just 39 balls.

Sehwag might have opened proceedings with a punishing 77 (56 balls) but Raina outpointed the big hitter four sixes to one.

Raina was severe on all the New Zealand bowlers, even the economical Daniel Vettori was not immune.

The spinner's spell ended when the slightly built left hander gliding a boundary past the vacant slips as he did the splits and overbalanced. He promptly righted himself and plugged the next ball down the ground and over the fence.

While Raina's ability might have taken the New Zealand fans by surprise, the Black Caps' own big hitter Jacob Oram had been forewarned.

The pair are teammates at the Chennai Super Kings, and Raina was among the most prolific scorers in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) last year.

"I think he was in the top five run scorers in the IPL," Oram recalled before today's second one-dayer here at Westpac Stadium.

"I knew he was a good player and I knew he could hit it big as well. For a small fella he can hit it a long way."

What did surprise Oram was the ease at which Raina switched batting positions.

He batted first drop in the Twenty20s and then found himself at five in Napier, coming in when the Indian innings threatened to unravel after the loss of Sehwag and Yuvraj in quick succession.

Instead he calmed proceedings with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the pair adding 110 for the fourth wicket.

"Raina was brilliant," Dhoni said.

"He came at a time that was tricky for him -- he had to decide whether to look for the big shots or get himself in.

"He went by instinct and that's good. He could have got out and would have looked really ugly, but we want individuals to play their natural game and he's played that kind of cricket for the past year."

Raina's talent was fostered in Uttar Pradesh, not a renowned breeding ground for Indian cricketers.

At 13 he was chosen to study at the Government Sports College in Lucknow, where he was scouted by Indian selectors.

He was selected in the under-17 and under-19 Indian sides and was awarded the Border-Gavaskar scholarship to hone his skills at the Australian Cricket Academy.

After considerable success in the Ranji Trophy with Uttar Pradesh Raina made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in 2005 as a teenager.

He was a fixture in the top or middle order until January 2007, when he was dropped after a 17-innings sequence without a fifty.

Recalled to the team in June last year Raina peeled off his formative centuries against Hong Kong and Bangladesh and it seems only a matter of time before he achieves three figures against one of the game's heavy hitters.

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