The Offside
With Sadagoppan Ramesh ruling himself out of the Tests and no
other tried and tested Test opener in sight, Dravid is the
only reassuring replacement.
The Karnataka batsman definitely has the technique and the
experience to play out the new ball. Dravid opening the
innings also means that he can nurse his younger and
inexperienced partner, Shiv Sunder Das, through his first tour
of the Rainbow nation. Das might have the backfoot technique
and ability to play on the fast and bouncy tracks in South
Africa but his confidence will not be especially high after
the few one-day games he has played. A senior opening partner
at the other end will, in this situation, be very helpful.
The opening partnership has really proved critical to India's
fortunes in foreign lands on previous occasions. The fact that
we have failed to make good starts has seen our top batsmen
exposed to the new ball and this subsequently has brought
about the team's downfall. A good total, say something in
excess of 350, could see our spin attack push the South
Africans into a corner. To achieve this end, steady starts are
needed. Connor Williams who has been selected might have
played Ranji cricket for six years. But making a debut in a
Test, in what are alien conditions in South Africa, might not
be the best initiation for the new man. Particularly when he
has only one warm-up game before the first Test to
come to grips with South African conditions. Dravid as Das'
opening partner is then India's best bet.
The Onside
Rahul Dravid might have the technique and ability to be an
opener but he is personally known to be not too keen about
opening the innings. In fact, in the last series in South
Africa he played only one innings as an opener. In the second
Test at Cape Town in January 1997, Dravid made two in the
first innings before being bowled by Klusener. Neither Dravid
nor the team-management continued the experiment any further.
Dravid has had great success in the middle-order and has
probably played his finest innings - a match-winning 180
against Australia at Eden Gardens - of his career in his
current position of No.6. It then would not make any sense to
move him up and down the order now.
Connor Williams, for his part, is a specialist opener and he
has been selected to play that role. The current South African
attack is also not as lethal as it once was and so there is no
need to shield Williams by not playing him.
The Williams-Das opening combination also gives India an added
advantage. The Baroda opener being a left-hander would give
the South African bowlers something more to think about. India
needs a long and stable opening partnerships not a short-term
fix. So why not try out Williams-Das?
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