In club cricket opening is the only place to bat, as any fule no. If I'm not opening, I'm not playing, pal. It offers the opportunity [not often taken, admittedly, but glorious when it is] to do what Virender Sehwag did in the first match of this World Cup - play a swaggering, gratifying, alpha-male innings whilst developing some sort of injury that gets you out of fielding later on.
Club cricket is for the most part a short game, hence the imperative not to waste any of it. In the pro ranks there's always another innings, but the shape of 50 over cricket gives opening an appeal that other formats don't for the alpha batsman. In Test cricket it is the ultimate examination of skill and nerve, and thus suited only to certain players with particular temperaments. In T20 matches, someone always gets out early, so the number three is essentially an opener too. In 50 over cricket, though, its appeal glistens in a particular way: the powerplays, the high-vis new ball that cracks off the bat, the bowler concerned with defence and attack, the chance to build and pace an innings.
It's no surprise then that many of the biggest, most anticipated and feared batters of the modern era open in ODIs: Hayden, Gayle, Gilchrist, Sehwag, Tendulkar, McCullum, Watson, Jayasuriya [the proto-ODI opener] and so on. No surprise either that KP fancied adding his name to the list.
It's a smart move in lots of ways. It suits his game on the sub-continent, it offers him a challenge, it boosts his misunderstood psyche. Pietersen is indisputably a big-game player, recently to the exclusion of almost everything else. As the T20 world cup proved, he's well suited to tournament cricket, with its unfolding narrative and building momentum. He's somehow attuned to things like that. For a deeply idiosyncratic man, the most idiosyncratic place in the order might be perfect.
I hope KP succeeds in the role. It will be very exciting if he does. The post made me think how thrilling it would have been to have watched Colin Milburn opening in a World Cup, then realised that, by today's fitness standards, he wouldn't have got near the team because of his bulk, which, in comparison, would have made Samit Patel look like a ballet dancer.
ReplyDeleteKP did okay today I think, though he dried up a bit when the keeper stood up. Let's hope he sticks around a bit longer on sunday...
ReplyDeletewas recalling your post on the oddness of Shane Watson after John mentioned the late great Colin Milburn. Shane Watson is basically immobile. He cannot really run singles and so does not ook to score singles - it is boundary or nothing. Which should make him easy to dry up - and does in Test Matches. I think Milburn might have been more mobile...but not in the sub-continent. Watch the surviving film...his feet moved like a dancer's.
ReplyDeleteDiogenes' post sent me looking for film of Milburn, but I couldn't find anything on Youtube (so will try Pathe), but I did read the entry on Wikipedia where I discovered that, in 1968/9 season, Milburn, playing for Western Australia against Queensland in Brisbane, scored 243, 181 of which were scored between lunch and tea! Oh, to have been at the Gabba that afternoon.
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