5 Indian openers waiting in the wings: Keeping Vijay and Dhawan on their toes
The duty of an opener is a specialized job, requiring a special set of skills; technique to see off the new ball and leaving the ball outside the off stump are some of the many skills expected of Test match openers. India has over the years produced some of the best openers of all times, though Midway through the 90’s there was a minor problem with openers; that was for a very brief period.
The list of great Indian openers will feature celebrated names of the game like Sunil Gavaskar, Vijay Merchant, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Krishnamachari Srikanth and more lately Virender Sehwag. India has been blessed in this aspect of the game.
The role of openers keeps changing with the passing time; you will see a drastic contrast if you draw a comparison between ‘the Sunil Gavaskar-era’ and ‘the Virender Sehwag-era’. If Sunil Gavaskar had the ability to leave the swinging ball, Sehwag was the exact opposite. He would butcher it through cover or backward point. Different players succeed because of different qualities in different eras.
Today, India is blessed with a good pool of openers; Shikhar Dhawan, Murli Vijay and Rohit Sharma as a backup opener. The openers have delivered at home and more recently in Australia.
But there are others who have been consistently been notching up the scores and in the process, keeping the current openers on their toes. I have identified 5 such names that are going to give Dhawan, Vijay, and Rohit, a real ‘run for their money’ in the near future.
K.L. Rahul
The 23 year-old from Bangalore, has already played for the national team down under. He was unsuccessful in the Boxing Day test, which was also his debut but showed a lot of character at Sydney when he scored an artistic 110, showing glimpses of Laxman in his prime.
K. L. Rahul is somebody who likes to play the long innings. He is lanky, and could also be your makeshift keeper in a crisis situation. Rahul is also next in line to take over the slot if a situation arises.
Jiwanjot Singh
Another 23 year old from Punjab who has taken to the Ranji circuit like fish to water, scoring in excess of 1000 first class runs in his debut season and then topping it up with another successful season, where he managed to score at an average of 40+ in the 2013-14 season. He has also represented India at the under 19 level.
Today he is also playing the IPL where SRH roped him in for Rs 1 Crore Many may believe that he is a raw deal, but continuing to back him and motivating him by his coaches should see him mature quickly.