When will the woes concerning the opening batting in Indiancricket end
Partab Ramchand12-Jun-2002When will the woes concerning the opening batting in Indiancricket end? Every now and then comes a batsman who displays allthe qualities required for a good opening bat – courage,technique, temperament, skill – and the Indian cricket fan heavesa sigh of relief believing that the crisis is past. But thensooner rather than later, the same player comes a cropper, goesthrough a string of failures, is dropped and the search startsall over again.Indian cricket has been beset with many a perennial problem -the lack of medium-pacers, sub-standard fielding, question marksover who is going to be the next wicketkeeper, an abysmal recordoverseas etc. But there is little doubt that the most vexatiousproblem has been the one posed at the top of the batting order.
© CricInfoIt would be tempting to trace the lack of a properly equippedopening batsman to the retirement of Sunil Gavaskar, 15 yearsago. In 106 Tests since the peerless technician called it a day,Indian opening pairs have registered just 13 three-figure stands.The long-standing problem is perhaps fitting, keeping in mind thesupreme irony of Indian cricket. The best start ever in Testcricket stands in the names of two Indians – Vinoo Mankad andPankaj Roy and their famous 413-run partnership against NewZealand at Madras that is yet to be broken, 46 years and some1200 Test matches later. And the worst-ever start in Test cricketalso stands in the name of India who lost their first fourwickets without a run on the board against England at Leeds in1952.While Gavaskar formed successful opening partnerships with ChetanChauhan and Anshuman Gaekwad, he and Krish Srikkanth, in theirown diverse ways, proved to be an unexpectedly durable pair. WhenGavaskar called it a day, Srikkanth suddenly found himself thesenior player while pairing with Arun Lal.Not long after they came together, however, Srikkanth’s fabledeyesight and reflexes began to fade, symbolised by his fallingaverage which stood at 33.88 in 1989 but fell to 29.88 by thetime he played his last Test three years later. Arun Lal, despitedisplaying courage and determination, never really inspiredconfidence against top-class fast bowling as illustrated by hiscareer average of 26.03, and by 1990 it was obvious that he hadplayed his last Test.Navjot Singh Sidhu, by his deeds in the West Indies in 1989, andRavi Shastri, no stranger to the opening slot, then seemed to bethe best bet for a durable opening pair. But though they did wellindividually they never really got going as a pair despite manyopportunities.Shastri’s obdurate qualities saw him get a double century againstAustralia in 1991-92 but a year later his career was over. As apure stopgap measure, Manoj Prabhakar was pushed to the openingslot. The latter’s tenacious qualities and fighting spirit sawhim make a fairly successful job of it. He was good enough totake a Test century off the West Indian pace attack at Mohali in1994-95.
© CricInfoPrabhakar and Sidhu formed an unexpectedly successful pair. Theyhad a stand of 109 against England in 1992-93 and also sharedsuccessive partnerships of 171 and 86 against Sri Lanka, the nextseason. Besides, Prabhakar also figured in century opening standswith Woorkheri Raman against New Zealand in 1990 and with AjayJadeja against the same opponents five years later.Just as Indian cricket seemed to have acquired a reliable openingpair after a long time, the problems started all over again. By1996, Prabhakar’s career had come to a sudden end following anindifferent World Cup. Then in England later that year, cameSidhu’s sensational decision to return midway through the tourand without playing a single Test following serious differenceswith the captain Azharuddin.The double blow re-opened the question mark over the opening slotand created havoc. Numerous combinations were tried out in quicksuccession – sometimes there were two different pairs in the sameTest – but nothing seemed to work. In desperation, Rahul Dravidwas pushed to open the innings and even wicketkeeper Nayan Mongiawas tried out.Others who donned the role of opening batsmen, though not verysuccessfully, during this period included Sanjay Manjrekar,Jadeja, Raman, Vikram Rathore and Venkatsai Laxman. But everycombination proved to be a sitting duck for the opposition.The return of Sidhu for the tour of West Indies in 1997 solvedthe problem partly in that he again showed why he was the bestopening batsman in the post-Gavaskar period. But the search for areliable opener who could partner him still continued.Mongia figured in a couple of century opening partnerships withhim during the 1997-98 season but this was a move designed topush an extra batsman into the team; it was never really asatisfactory or long-term arrangement. Sidhu and Laxman tooshared a 191-run partnership against Australia the same seasonbut even at this time it was clear that Laxman was happier downthe order.As Sidhu played his last Test in 1999 after figuring in fivecentury opening stands with three different partners, a tallleft-hander from Chennai, Sadagoppan Ramesh was presented as thenext big hope. Again, Ramesh seemed to have the qualities neededto succeed at this specialised position even though he attractedmuch adverse comment, with the purists faulting his footwork andtechnique.That did not stop Ramesh from figuring in five three-figureopening stands with three different partners over the next threeyears. Late last year, however, questions were raised about histemperament and with his state association not backing him, hefell out of favour with the national selection committee. In themeantime, Laxman had taken his rightful place in the middleorder.All too briefly, Bengal’s Devang Gandhi flickered on the horizon.He figured in two successive century opening partnerships withRamesh against New Zealand in 1999-2000 but proved to be easymeat for McGrath and company in Australia later that season.With Mongia not being considered, there occurred the mostdesperate action of fielding MSK Prasad as an opening batsman inAustralia. Prasad vs McGrath was potentially one of the mostlopsided individual contests in world cricket and notunexpectedly, the tall Australian spearhead dismissed the Indianwicketkeeper twice for single digits in the third Test.In the new millennium, the search commenced all over again. Thediscovery this time was Mumbai’s technically-correct Wasim Jafferwho had a tough baptism against Donald, Pollock and Hayward. Andastonishingly, the experiment with a reluctant Dravid continuedwith little success.At the start of the 2000-2001 season, the selectors then turnedto Shiv Sundar Das. The diminutive batsman from Orissa at lastseemed to be the answer to our prayers. He seemed to have all thequalities required to succeed at the job and in quick successionfigured in two three-figure partnerships with Ramesh.
© CricInfoEven as Ramesh fell out of favour, Das continued to prosper andwas in the process of challenging Sidhu as the country’s finestopening batsman in the post-Gavaskar era when he suddenly lookedout of sorts in the just concluded series against the WestIndies. This was a pity, for a recalled Jaffer seemed to havetightened up his technique and had a fairly successful outing inthe Caribbean.Too much should not be read into the brief experiment with DeepDasgupta despite the Bengal wicketkeeper getting a Test hundredand figuring in a century partnership with Das. The need of thehour is two specialised opening batsmen and unfortunately thesearch still continues. Will the England tour provide an answerat last?