First In First Out - Part III

You won’t find two opening batsmen, poles apart from each other - both in style and their outlook to the game - as Vijay Merchant and Syed Mushtaq Ali were.

Vijay Merchant was the epitome of concentration. Once, after getting out on 250, in a first class match, he said in a non chalant way, "My concentration ‘slackened a bit’, else I could have easily carried on." Mushtaq Ali on the other hand had a dare devil approach and often stepped out of the crease to hit fast bowlers. Remember, he did that in 1930s! In the words of Ray Robinson, "The only time he is still is when he takes guard from the umpire. Why he goes through the formality is one of the mysteries of the Orient because, after making his mark, he takes no notice of it."

Neither of the two started their test careers as opening batsmen. But when they opened together for the first time at Old Trafford in 1936, they put on 203 runs for the opening wicket, exactly the same no.of runs that Indian team had scored in its first innings. It was no fluke, for they combined together by sharing 81 and 64 run partnership in the very next test at Kennington Oval.

World War II robbed more than 7 years of cricket from their prime, but it failed to diminish the spark from their batting. In one of the wettest English seasons in 1946 (pitches were left uncovered then) they scored 124 and 94 runs in two of the three tests that they opened in. Alas, it was also the last series in which they opened together. In four tests as openers, their impressive record reads 3 half centuries, 1 century and 1 double century, all in away tests.

I can’t resist posting this beautiful piece on Mushtaq-Merchant opening pair by Sujit Mukherjee. He writes: "I wonder if the Mushtaq - Merchant combination did not contain the finest possibilities of Hindu Muslim collaboration in India. Sustained by profound mutual regard, they complemented each other – Merchant representing the wisdom, the endurance, the deep rooted nature of Hindu India and Mushtaq representing the dash, the vision and the grand design of Muslim India. Appropriately matched, it made an irresistible combination".

Like their predecessors, Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy were as different as chalk and cheese. Pankaj Roy was the more aristocratic of the two. It won’t be out of place to say that Roy often played in binary states - 0 and 1. He probably holds the record for the highest percentage of ducks for an opener during his time. But he also held up the Indian innings for a decade, first with Vinoo Mankad and then with Nari Contractor. His partner - Vinoo Mankad - was more gifted, in fact, one of the most gifted cricketers of his time. A pucca Gujarathi businessman, he had the audacity to ask the board to compensate him for the loss of revenues during the 1952 away series against England. No wonder he was a miser, both in giving away runs off his bowling and gifting his wicket while batting.

And as with Merchant – Mushtaq, Roy and Mankad first came together against England at Calcutta in 1952 and straightaway shared an opening century partnership, followed by a half century in the very next innings. The ‘Mankad’s test’ at Lords in the following series saw them break 100 runs mark once again, but it got overshadowed by otherwise disastrous tour. Their crowning glory came in the last test at Madras against New Zealand when they put on a 413 runs in 471 minutes, a world record that has stood test of times till today.

How badly India missed a good opening pair after them is brought out in the fact that in 15 years after this world record stand, India could manage only 4 opening century partnerships.

Gavaskar’s debut changed all that.

Two years before Gavaskar made his debut, Chetan Chauhan had opened Indian innings with Vinoo Mankad’s son, Ashok Mankad, against Australia at Madras. But he had to wait for further nine years to combine with Sunil Gavaskar. The Perth test of 1978 spelt the beginning of the most successful opening partnership, hitherto unknown in Indian cricket. In eight series including the Australian of 1978, Indian cricket witnessed a familiar sight of Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan walking out to open the Indian innings. For four years from then on, they provided much needed stability at the top. Only 4 of the 36 tests that India played during this period saw a different player in the opening role, Roger Binny and Anshuman Gaekwad being the ‘culprits’ on two occasions each.

Gavaskar’s debut is well documented. What is hard to believe, is that Chetan Chauhan’s first two scoring shots in tests were, a square cut for four and a flick for six! Other wise he was an out and out defensive batsman. But he was a perfect foil to the little master and carved out some memorable partnerships like the 192 at Lahore against the likes of Imran Khan and Sarfaraz Nawaz, the near match winning 213 at Oval against England in 1979, the courageous 124 at Manchester in the same series following on, the match winning (and series winning) 192 against Australia in Bombay and the superb 165 against Messrs. Lillee and Pascoe at Melbourne.

They remain the only opening pair in India to put over 3000 runs in test matches and by far, the best India has ever had.

Apart from these three pairs, only handfuls have threatened to be successful. Contractor – Jaisimha, Prabhakar - Sidhhu and of late Sehwag – Chopra, have flattered to deceive. A rather grim scenario, given that this June 25th, India will be celebrating 75 years of test cricket.

An opening pair is often a measure of team’s strength and overall success. In India’s case, the paucity of thoroughbred openers is a good measure of its long drawn failures in test cricket.

First In First Out - Part II

Given Indian selectors’ penchant to choose makeshift openers over the regular ones, it won’t be a bad idea to advise young players against opening the innings early in their careers. It might actually brighten their chances of opening for India some day!

How did the idea of makeshift openers take its roots in Indian cricket? Was it the lack of reliable opening batsmen, or just a case of aping other teams? Either ways, when Janardan Navle and Jaoomal Naoomal walked out to bat for India at Lords in 1932, they set a precedent, which Indian cricket could have done without.

A cursory glance at the list of openers reveals that out of 84 players who have opened the Indian innings so far, only a third were qualified openers. Indeed, an abysmally low percentage by any standards.

This is not to devalue the contributions made by some of the make shift openers. Players like Mushtaq Ali, Ravi Shastri, Navjot Singh Siddhu, Virendra Sehwag have adapted superbly to opening position after playing some of their early innings in the middle and late order. Why, even Vijay Merchant batted at number six in first three tests of his career. Pankaj Roy, was originally a middle order batsman in domestic cricket before graduating to opener’s role in test matches.

But it hurts that there wasn’t an honest effort made, to tap and groom genuine opening batsmen. As Sujit Mukherjee says:

Indian selectors and captains seem to regard numbers one or two in the batting order as ritual sacrifices to propitiate whatever gods that promise prosperity to rest of the batting.

And so, Indian batting inspite of having some fine middle order players, never prospered, for they rarely enjoyed the luxury of a good opening stand, which they could build their innings upon. The sorry state is mirrored in the fact that in 117 tests before Gavaskar arrived on the scene, there were just 9 opening century partnerships, including one double and one quadruple. (The corresponding figure during Gavaskar era is 21 century stands in 129 tests. Post Gavaskar era, it reads 25 century stands including 1 double and 2 quadruple, in 161 tests)

What about India’s near obsession with wicket keeping openers? Perhaps, no other test-playing nation has flirted with this idea as much as we have. Even 75 years after Navle first opened the batting, it seems India has not gotten over the ridiculous notion of doubling up the wicket keeper as an opener. Of 34 players who have kept wickets for India thus far, almost half of them (15) have also opened the innings.

There are honorable exceptions here too. The aggressive Budhi Kunderan, the dynamic Farooq Engineer, the tedious Nayan Mongia and the lucky Deep Dasgupta have all scored hundreds opening the innings and keeping wickets in same match. In fact, Budhi Kunderan’s swashbuckling 192 at Madras against England in 1963/64 series, remained for many years the highest score by an Indian on the first day of a test (it is still the highest ever made by Indian wicket keeper). His tally of 525 runs in that series is also a record for Indian keeper.

But these were mere exceptions, than rule. Take a bird’s eye view and you find that most Indian batsmen have, more often than not, floundered at the top. There’s another reason to it.

An opening batsman needs to have supreme levels of concentration, gumption to take on fast bowlers and technique to counter the shinning red cherry. There have been instances when Indian batsmen were accused of backing too far away from fast bowlers, most notably during the 1952 tour of England. The apocryphal story goes that, at the point of delivery, Indian batsmen were no where in the range of English bowlers’ vision!

A major part of this blame can be apportioned to the docile pitches that breed and feed Indian batsmen. More importantly, these pitches also impede the growth of express fast bowlers, so essential during the formative years of an opening batsman. With little or no experience of facing high quality fast bowling, nor of playing on fast and bouncy pitches, the gap becomes difficult to bridge, when batsman takes the international stage.

But like a silver lining that accompanies every dark cloud, there were batsmen - openers - who proudly glittered though this gloom.

(to be continued)

First In First Out - Part I

Almost exactly 20 years before Rahul Dravid and his men succumbed to Bangladesh’s Mortaza, Razzak and Rafiq in the first round of 2007 World cup, Sunil Gavaskar was waging the last of his numerous battles, this time against Pakistani spinners Tausif Ahmed and Iqbal Qasim, on a treacherous Bangalore pitch. The day - 16th March 1987 - was Gavaskar’s last in test cricket.

It was also the beginning of a long drawn struggle for Indian openers, a struggle, which shows no signs of abating even today.

How uphill the task has been for Indians can be gauged from the fact that in last 20 years, India has selected no fewer than 30 openers in test matches and in the process tried 50 different combinations of opening pair. That means a new opening batsman after 5 tests (approximately, for India played 161 tests after Gavaskar retired) and a new opening combination every 3 tests! A sure recipe for disaster, won’t you say?

What do the figures during the Gavaskar era say? In 129 tests that India played since his debut at the Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1971, Gavaskar has partnered 19 batsmen to open the Indian innings. This list does not include players like Raman Lamba, Suru Nayak and Lalchand Rajput, all of whom have opened the batting when Gavaskar was either unfit or had dropped himself lower down the order. The number of opening combinations during this period reads 30.

If we peek into the pre Gavaskar era, i.e. from 1932 to 1971, during which it played 117 tests, India has had 30 openers and 45 different combinations of opening pair. An opener every 4 tests and a different combination every 3 tests.

Dig deeper and we find that in 75 years of its test history, only four Indians had an extended/continuous run as opening batsman. Pankaj Roy - for almost a decade in 1950s, Nari Contractor - between 1955 till the time he got injured during the WI tour of 1962, Sunil Gavaskar - from 1971 to 1987 and Virendra Sehwag from - 2002 to 2007.

What do these figures suggest? Obvious inference is the lack of quality opening batsmen over a period of time. But more damning is that, when we were fortunate to have a quality opener in the side, we failed to capitalize on it by not having a stable opening partner at the other end.

There are only four instances in Indian cricket, when the same opening pair batted a full series involving 5 tests or more. Three of those involved Gavaskar (with Chauhan against Australia in 1979, with Gaekwad against WI in 1983 and with Srikanth against Pakistan in 1987). The other instance was in 1955 against Pakistan, when Pankaj Roy and P H Punjabi opened in all 5 tests.

Opening batsmen, like bowlers, hunt in pairs. Hutton - Washbrook, Lawry - Simpson, Greenidge – Haynes and Hayden – Langer, to name a few, form cricket’s most celebrated opening pairs. No wonder, their stay at the ‘top’ coincided with the team’s domination in world cricket.

So when Rahul Dravid said, at the end of recent Bangladesh series, that during the last ten years he has seen only ‘makeshift’ openers open the Indian batting, he wasn’t merely stating the fact. He was also alluding to the deeper malaise that has been part of Indian cricket since 25th June 1932 – the day India played her first test match at Lords.

(to be continued...)