The open season: India make it fizz at the top

N Ananthanarayanan and Sanjjeev K Samyal

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: As India made a sensational comeback to win a second successive Test series in Australia early this year, the country’s seemingly limitless pace resources— unearthed after injuries to the regular fast bowling quartet— played a huge part in the remarkable achievement.

There was another quieter revolution at the other end of the scale, so to say, in the opening department—now brimming with almost as much surplus, if not the talent too, as the country’s fine pace bowling battery.

A quality opener is like a “fox in the box” striker in football, in the sense that the search for a great fit is constantly on. Indian openers continue to be judged on performances in seaming, overseas conditions. The jury is out on that count but India now have a good crop of openers to call upon as backups, unlike in the past. Rohit Sharma is constantly delivering after being promoted to the top of the order. The seasoned Mayank Agarwal, and his Karnataka and IPL teammate, KL Rahul, add to the healthy crowding at the top.

In Australia, Shubman Gill became the latest entrant to that exalted position in Test cricket, while his captain in the victorious under-19 World Cup team of 2018, Prithvi Shaw, dropped after the first Test in Australia, has stormed back into reckoning after an outstanding show in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In the limited over formats, left-hander Shikhar Dhawan remains very much in the scheme of things after a fine showing in IPL 2020. His Team India partnerships with Rohit has helped the side dominate the one-day scene.

It is a huge step forward, especially considering the waiting phase of the past. The “who will be the next Gavaskar?” question took more than a decade-and-a-half to be answered. Even then, Virender Sehwag batted at No.6 or No.7 in his first five Tests before being pitch-forked to open in tough conditions on the tour of England in 2002. He opened for the rest of his 99 Tests. Wasim Jaffer (31 Tests), Gautam Gambhir (58 Tests) and Dhawan (34 Tests) were the others to get a decent run.

While India have discovered many talented fast bowlers in the last few years, thanks to cash and career incentives provided in the IPL, a robust junior programme and A tours under the guidance of Rahul Dravid too seemed to have helped hone the talent of the new-ball batters. Gill and Prithvi Shaw have both benefitted from the mentoring programmes of BCCI under Dravid.

Like the pace department offering varied skills, the openers too have demonstrated their potential. Gill, 21, is tall, strong and aggressive with a range of shots. But his biggest asset is a quality that places him above those in the category of potential greats—having the time to play even the quickest bowlers on lively pitches. It is a talent few possess. But both Australia’s Pat Cummins and England’s James Anderson have dismissed him by exploiting his technique of playing beside his body rather than in front of it in the classical way. This has left him vulnerable to the moving ball on and around the off-stump.

Shaw, equally aggressive, struck a century on Test debut, at home against West Indies on the benign Rajkot pitch. Like Gill, Shaw is part of a new breed of players who looks to take the game away from the opposition, rather than play himself in. When it comes off, it can strike a psychological blow on the opposing bowlers. But Shaw too found he is not yet the finished article in Australia, where he was bowled in both innings of the only Test he played in Adelaide. But he too has undergone a process of correcting his errors as he fetched a record tally of 827 runs in Mumbai’s title-winning Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign last week.

There has never been a doubt over Rohit’s abundance of talent. But after seasons of underwhelming performances that made him go in and out of the Test team, Rohit has looked a different player since being asked to open in the home series against South Africa a couple of years ago. This is perhaps he has brought the experience gained with opening in ODIs and the IPL to his Test game. It has helped him handle pace like he did in Australia, while he currently is the best Indian batsman against spin, as was evident on the tough tracks against England at home.

There are two main reasons for India’s sudden spurt in opening talent. As seasoned Mumbai coach Dinesh Lad, who guided Rohit and is the coach of Shardul Thakur, says: “You get more time to shine in the limited overs game. You get scoring chances in the powerplay overs, and if you get seveneight boundaries during those fielding restrictions, you already have a decent score on the board.”

The other big reason is that the age-old, temperament-first approach has finally been junked by team managements and selectors. IPL has also shown the path for openers, where aggression and power always pays out with big rewards. T20 cricket has allowed young players, batsmen and bowlers, to find their way of dealing with the challenge of the new ball. Just a few years ago, a crop of domestic fast bowlers got really good with the new ball, now it’s the turn of the new-ball batsmen to do the same.

Indian openers Shubman Gill (L) and Rohit Sharma.