Not an open and shut case at the top of India’s batting order

Agarwal’s unavailability could mean Sharma and Rahul will be India’s 10th opening pair in England since 2011

Had India opened their batting with Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal in the first Test in Nottingham, they would have tried nine openers in England since 2011. That’s the most among all Test nations playing in England during the same period. Now that Agarwal is out of the first Test after being hit on the helmet by Mohammed Siraj during Monday’s nets, there is a decent chance KL Rahul (Bengal batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran is the other option) could be paired with Sharma. Rahul should have ideally been a frontrunner, given his experience of opening in England in 2018 (and scoring 149 at The Oval, his last Test century) but the management picked him as middle-order backup. With the middle-order sorted after India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane announced himself fit for the first Test from Wednesday, Sharma and Rahul look all set to be tasked with setting up base in a country that is rarely kind to openers.

Indian openers Mayank Agarwal (L), KL Rahul (centre) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (R) (HT Collage)

The degree of ease in batting largely depends on the conditions. Overcast skies generally mean more pronounced movement but if the sun is out, batting becomes progressively trouble-free after the first session. But batting in England can be tricky because it can go from sunny to overcast within minutes. Factor in the Dukes ball that tends to seam longer than Kookaburra and SG and the openers start with a distinct disadvantage. It’s often a mental block more than anything---the dreary proposition of sacrificing strokes while opposition bowlers keep pegging away at a teasing length. Getting tempted is just a matter of time. Middle-order partnerships, thus, have traditionally yielded more runs than openers. Over the past five years, only twice in nine Test series in England did the highest opening partnership cross the 100-run mark (114 against West Indies, 2020 and 126 against Pakistan in 2016). Six out of the eight other highest partnerships have all been scored by England, highlighting the challenges tourists face trying to start well.

Encouraged by the flexibility in their batting that allows the openers to work out their approach, England look more sorted. At home, Rory Burns has different gears to his batting but Dom Sibley can shut out the bowling for hours, knowing well that a Jos Buttler or Ben Stokes can accelerate later if needed. Sibley took 312 balls to reach his maiden hundred at home---the seventh slowest century in terms of balls faced by an English batsman---against West Indies in Manchester last year. England still won that Test by 113 runs. India need to make the same impact, either through both openers or one of them who can anchor the innings. The last tour in 2018 is a good example of where India went wrong, with the opening partnerships yielding 50 and 19 in Birmingham (lost by 31 runs), 0 and 0 at Lord’s (lost by innings and 159 runs), 60 and 60 in Nottingham (won by 203 runs), 37 and 4 in Southampton (lost by 60 runs) and 6 and 1 at The Oval (lost by 118 runs).

When it comes to Test openers, India have been particularly cagey, trying out 12 batsmen (exceeded only by England’s 19) since Virat Kohli became full-time captain in 2015. By the Australia series earlier this year, it looked as if they had finally locked in on Sharma and Shubman Gill but a lower shin injury to Gill and Agarwal’s concussion have given Rahul another chance to impress. Inadvertently, India’s batting evokes more confidence now. What makes them tick? Sharma, for starters, is a reformed opener now. His range of strokes remains unchanged but Sharma has looked more surefooted than ever, ready to lean more into his drives and play closer to the body. And while his improvement in away form is not backed by numbers, Sharma looks much wiser. Case in point is the World Test Championship final in damp Southampton where Sharma forced the Kiwis to change their length by standing out of the crease. By the time New Zealand’s seamers got their length right, India had already put on fifty for the opening stand. The inswinger may still worry Sharma but most encouraging is his confidence in leaving balls outside off-stump---a thumb rule to do well in England.

Rahul scored a hundred as a middle-order bat in the warmup game last month but the real incentive in making him open is that he can pick up from where he had left at The Oval three years back---a glorious 149 that rounded off a string of lean scores. “I remember The Oval being the best batting pitch we got in the whole series,” said Rahul in a recent interview to bcci.tv . “At the back of my mind, I also knew it was the last game of the series and I hadn’t done well. So, it was only realistic that I would have probably not gotten a chance in the next series. I wanted to make it count, enjoy my batting. I had a sense of freedom.

“I have never really worried about confidence. It’s my self-belief that has gotten me so far, but it’s about maintaining a calm head, learning from your mistakes. I’m just enjoying my game. I have made mistakes, I have learnt from them. I get stronger. This is a good opportunity again, hopefully fingers crossed I can do the job for the team,” said Rahul.