The changing role of the opener

How is Sunil Gavaskar different from Sachin Tendulkar? Or Virender Sehwag from Sourav Ganguly? Or Matthew Hayden from Adam Gilchrist? They are all openers, so is there a difference at all? Well, yes and no.

These men are the first to step on the field, the first to face the new ball and the first to get dismissed in an innings. They have all led the team from the front. Yet, when viewed closely, each displays individuality, thanks to the difference in the formats they open in.

Opening in Test cricket
It wouldn't be extravagant to propose that opening the batting in Test cricket can be divided into two eras: pre- and post-Sehwag. Despite opening with Viru, I belong to the era before him.

There are certain traits a school coach looks for in a kid before entrusting him with the task of opening the batting. It goes without saying that the batsman ought to be comfortable against pace and swing. Yet it takes much more than just getting into the second line or playing late to succeed at the top.

An opener should be extremely wary of every ball bowled at him. When the new ball is bowled with an upright seam, even if it is travelling straight in the air, he must not treat it as a straight ball because there is always a possibility of it swinging late in the air or moving sideways after pitching. Playing through the line is a complete no-no.

Even as most players' eyes light up at a juicy half-volley, an opener should always tread with caution. Good openers prefer the check-drive over a full-flowing drive for a couple of reasons: firstly, once committed to a drive, it's very difficult to pull out, which you must if the ball moves late; secondly, an opener can time the ball to get maximum rewards. He doesn't need to knock the leather off it.

The same cautious nature takes precedence when it comes to turning the bat inwards while playing off the legs. You wait till the very last moment, right till the point of contact, to turn the wrists because you can never be sure whether the seam, on gripping the surface, will change direction and force a top edge.

That doesn't mean an opener should subdue his instincts completely. He must trust his judgement with regard to how much the ball will swing in the air and deviate after pitching. Else it would be next to impossible to play it. There are no surefire methods of knowing the amount of deviation and hence you must fall back on your experience and gut feeling.

Two traits at odds with each other and yet a good opener in Test cricket must have a healthy mix of both to succeed.

The contradiction doesn't end there. Mike Atherton once told me that an opener must concede that he can't be a perfectionist but still must try to get as close as it is possible to being perfect.

Since the ball is new, the bowler fresh and the track untested, there will always be deliveries that will defeat you. The trick is to not think about them and to start focusing on the next ball. While it's fine to get beaten every now and then, it's still mandatory that you work towards getting your technique watertight.

A little push down the ground, off both feet, working the ball on the leg side, and an occasional square cut were the only ways known to traditional openers for scoring runs early in the innings in Test cricket. Even the square cut wasn't considered a straightforward shot because one must not hit the ball that is still rising. The square cut was only to be played to deliveries that were hittable even after they had acquired the optimum height.

As Sunny bhai would often say, "Give the first half an hour to the bowler, the remaining five and a half hours are yours," which means, gauge the bounce and pace of the pitch and try to play as little as possible in the beginning.

There were a few rebels, like Michael Slater, who challenged that school of thought, but no one changed the way opening was perceived as much as Sehwag. He not only scores a lot of runs consistently but also in all conditions.

Now if you want to bat in the Sehwag mould, there's no need to be extra-cautious as an opener. You can not only play through the line but also on the up, as long as you hit it regularly. No longer is it mandatory to get on top of the ball to play the square cut, because getting under the ball and hitting it over the gully and slip cordon is also an acceptable shot and a rewarding one as well. Sehwag's batting is a lot about courage of conviction and simple technique. He is extremely successful but you emulate him at your own peril.

To be fair on the likes of Sehwag and Tillakaratne Dilshan, the role of an opener in Test cricket has also changed over the years. An opener is no longer expected to see off the shine to shield the No. 4, the best batsman in the team, but leads the attack from the front.

Opening in 50-over cricket
Opening in the shorter format is not as demanding as opening in Test cricket. There's about twice as much room for error in an ODI as compared to Test cricket, for while the ball is moving there are usually two slips at most, maybe the odd gully, and no close-in fielders on the leg side.

That's perhaps why we see so many players who would never open the innings in the longer format successfully do so in ODIs. In fact, opening is considered the best position in which to bat in the shorter format because not only do you get to bat the most overs, you also enjoy the first Powerplay overs. And unlike in Twenty20, here you can play a few quiet overs to get your eye in.

Opening in the 50-over version follows a regimented routine for most: play the new white ball with caution and then change gears as the game progresses. It's almost mandatory to keep hitting boundaries at regular intervals to keep the scoreboard moving, because stealing singles with nine men inside the ring isn't easy. Though Gautam [Gambhir] and Viru, for instance, take as many singles as possible, the majority of runs come in boundaries. Opening the face of the bat and using the pace of the ball, which is considered near-blasphemy in Test cricket, is the easiest way to rotate the strike here, for there's hardly anyone manning third man. And once the Powerplay overs are done, unless you're chasing a huge target, all you need to do is to rotate strike.

Even in this format, though, many players approached opening the batting differently. Kris Srikkanth started it and Mark Greatbatch took it to the next level, but it was Sanath Jayasuriya who changed the rules of the game. Jayasuriya, for me, was the Sehwag of one-day cricket. He took the aerial route right from the beginning and no one used the Powerplays better than him. Gilchrist and Hayden also did something similar but Jayasuriya will always be remembered as the pioneer.

Opening in Twenty20 cricket
Opening in the shortest format is all about aggression. There's no time to assess the pace and bounce, so you have to trust your instincts and take a bit of risk. In Twenty20, it's as important to know your go-to areas as it is to know your off stump in Test cricket. An opener's endeavour is to find the fence at least twice an over. And if you don't manage to hit balls in your preferred areas, you must innovate or create the desired lengths and lines to find the fence. The first six overs can decide the future of a match in a Twenty20 game and it's criminal to let them pass without inflicting enough damage. You can bide your time, but in this format that means a couple of deliveries at most.

If you are unbeaten at the end of the sixth over, it's your responsibility to bat deep into the innings. If one of the openers bats till the 12th or 13th over, getting to a reasonable total is guaranteed. Having wickets in hand in the last seven overs gives everyone the licence to go berserk, and someone who has been there for such a long time might find accelerating a lot easier than a new guy walking in.

A lot has changed in cricket but perhaps nothing as drastically as opening the batting. Earlier, uncovered wickets, the quality of fast bowling, and the pace at which the game was played dictated that openers be ultra-cautious. But today it's daredevilry that rules the roost.