Openers and Rahul

Atlast official cricketing wisdom backs me and my Guru Rahul Dravid.

Geoff Boycott, in his felicitation to Rahul Dravid, on the eve of his 100th Test wonders why Rahul does not consider himself to be good enough to be a regular opener.

Because, Geoff, the cricketing critics will not let him. Every time Rahul opens the batting critics will say that he can, at best, be a stop-gap opener. The critics seem to believe that the opening batsmen can only belong to a different species than ordinary cricketers. So, much that when an ODI opener Saurav is not even considered to open Test games.

“Openers are born, not made” the critics seem to believe. There is a constant look. Tons of performance does not seem to convince critics that Rahul Dravid can possibly open the innings.

One childhood-mate of an Ex-captain who was regular No.3 opened for India once and failed. The ostensible excuse was that he was not used to the ‘opener’ slot. Pray, what role would he be handling if the first wicket fell of the first ball ?

Traditionally, thanks to this critic-viewpoint, India has constantly looking to recruit openers for it national team from the regional openers caste.

Admittedly, Opening an innings can be a specialist task. But consider the fairness of pulling out First-class cricketers to meet the like of international speedsters on their debut. Thus went Vikram Rathore, Sujith Somasundar and several others whom history may not even remember to meet Allan Donald, Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh on their debut.

The story will go on…
… Unless RD decides …

Psst : Speculation is that RD asked Saurav to open in Pakistan and ( am not making comments here) Ganguly mouthed “Why me” and Dear RD led by example.
PS: When Irfan Pathan opened in the second innings of the third Test at Wankhede the commentators heaped criticism on Rahul claiming that he was sending bowlers to do a batsman's job and that he must have come in himself. Poor Rahul !!