A team is only as good their opening batsmen

India and Australia, two of the mightiest teams in the cricketing world have shown abrupt falls from great heights in the last 2 years. Look more recently and England can be added to that list, having succumbed to Hashim Amla‘s invincibility.

In all three cases, the bowling units struggled. But in cricket, the bowlers can only perform as well their batsmen allow them to. Safe to say, none of these bowling units had nearly enough support from their batsmen. In fact, one trait of batsmanship – or the lack of it – stood out in all three cases; and that common factor was the performance of the opening pairs of each of these teams.

When India rose to number one in the rankings, Sehwag had established himself as, arguably, one of the finest openers to have ever played the game. But their noses were ahead of the other teams because Gautam Gambhir had also come off age simultaneously; he almost completed the half-notes for the orchestra at the other end in the form of Sehwag to form a perfect symphony that dazzled the opposition and inspired their own team alike.

Ditto with Australia, whose batting thrived under the dominance of the Langer-Hayden pairing and even, for some time, with Katich and Watson at the top. And the same for England who had seemed to have found an absolute legend in Alistair Cook until the South Africans found his prior dominance out, and showed that he was a good player and not a great one.

South Africa had problems with their openers as well. Graeme Smith couldn’t find the middle of the bat for a large part of two years. But the presence of Amla (also an opening batsman) at number 3 negated any advantage the opposition got and that was enough for their bowling attack to fire all cannons.

In essence, the downfall of some of the biggest teams has been a domino effect that was triggered right at the top of the batting order. The importance of the opener has never been stressed enough. Their roles are often seen as that of playing out the new ball to make things easier for the batsmen to come. That is a mistake in itself. If it were the case, teams could have well sent in numbers 8 and 9 up the order to plant the big front foot forward and only get the bat out if their lives and those of their families were in danger.

It is a specialist’s job and is a whole different level of batting. For one, you face the ball in it’s best condition – in the best of bowling conditions. And if you want a bigger adventure, the bowlers will oblige. Fresh, ready and running in at their hardest.

Perhaps that’s why an opener can win you a game single-handedly, even if he does so unnoticed. The sight of the opposite’s strike bowler being tamed can only do good to the next man to walk in. Inadvertently, a big score is put up and that is half the battle done in test cricket.

Perhaps the opener’s job will never be given as much importance as the big-name individuals in the game. Perhaps that is why the number 3 batsmen are regarded as the most important ones in the team and perhaps no one will ever remember an opener who is not a Sehwag or a Hayden.

But at the end of the day, no matter how strong the base of your sculpture, it’s the craft of the head that will be extolled.