HAVING A GOOD RUN: Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik have at least temporarily solved the problem of openers for India. — PHOTO: AFP

DHAKA: Former India captain Ajit Wadekar, during his tenure as the cricket coach of the National team, took great interest in ensuring that the openers remained in the best frame of mind. He believed they were critical to the course the innings would take and would go to the extent of pampering them.

Wadekar could also be credited with introducing a policy that worked well and helped India discover a pair, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Manoj Prabhakar, makeshift to begin with, that learnt to become reliable following sustained support.

Sidhu and Prabhakar were made to share a room. Those days, cricketers did not enjoy single occupancy accommodation. Now they do, but it's a different matter that some of them still prefer to share.

Well, Wadekar's belief was they would develop an understanding that would help when tackling the new ball at the crease and the philosophy worked well with Sidhu and Prabhakar. Indian cricket benefited from their association.

It was Wadekar's vision that saw India prosper even though he personally never supported the idea of makeshift openers.

Triggering debates

Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik do not share a room, but their understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses was the biggest gain from the series in Bangladesh. The Indians discovered an opening pair that promises to provide stability at the top.

The opener's slot has always triggered debates and furious races among the aspirants. Claimants to this specialised area have been many, but only a few have stayed long. India has perennially struggled to find the ideal pair in Tests and often makeshift openers have been preferred to the traditional ones.

There was a time when the popular way to the Indian team was in aiming for the opener's position. Pravin Amre, unable to command a place in the middle order, was willing to open in international cricket, something he had not done even at the club level. Sanjay Manjrekar, having once turned down the responsibility, offered to open when threatened with insecurity in the middle order in the twilight of his career.

From Sunil Gavaskar-Chetan Chauhan, Gavaskar-Aunshuman Gaekwad, Gavaskar-K.

Srikkanth to Sidhu-Prabhakar, Virender Sehwag-Gautam Gambhir the transition was smooth, but India always struggled to find a solid pair.

Experiments

Batsmen like Dilip Vengsarkar and Rahul Dravid have had to open the innings in Tests as experiments that obviously failed to click. Not for want of effort from them but the dents their promotion created in the middle order.

Just give a thought to this piece of statistics. There are 27 first-class teams in India. That makes it 54 specialist openers; 81 per team considering there is a replacement in place. Still, it was a middle-order batsman who became a `specialised' opener for India when not performing the role for his home State or zone. Jaffer is not a makeshift opener. Karthik is.

India tried nine different opening combinations in the last 32 Tests since Aakash Chopra was sacked to accommodate makeshift opener Parthiv Patel in the Rawalpindi Test in 2003-04. The Sehwag-Chopra pair had promised to serve long because they backed each other well but that was not to be.

Does it indicate lack of talent because even under-19 players do not get mentioned by the National selectors. When Dravid says that middle-order batsmen make better openers, the specialist openers know where they stand.

The trend was opposite in limited-overs cricket where for a long time, openers had preferred to bat lower down because the top was packed with Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly.

However, Karthik has emerged a reliable opener. "He looks a quality player," cricket manager Ravi Shastri had concluded at the end of the Bangladesh tour. To put things in perspective, there was no big threat from Bangladesh where Mashrafe bin Mortaza, not fully fit, was the lone quality new-ball bowler. But that takes away nothing from Karthik's performance, for his temperament and technique were encouragingly refreshing for the bigger assignments ahead, England being the most immediate.

Settled pair

As Dravid observed the other day, it's time India had a settled pair. It cannot be assessed Test by Test. Both have done well and there is growing support for Jaffer and Karthik, even though it makes life tougher for someone like V.V.S. Laxman, once a reluctant opener who was later restored his rightful place in the middle order. He must now be tempted to reverse his decision because the new five-bowler theory leaves little scope for Laxman to return to the playing eleven, unless, of course, he offers to open again in case of repeated failures when India tours England later this summer.

Jaffer and Karthik have, at least temporarily, solved the problem, putting Sehwag and Gambhir on the wait list.

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