With due respect to Sunny, the only image i remember of Gavaskar as an opener, is Malcolm Marshal running in from the boundary line and getting him caught-behind in the first over of the test match ! :) The question i have is: How come Gavaskar becamse such a great opener inspite of having played on dull pitches ?
Ramesh, Das and to an extent Sanjay Bangar are quality players. They have experience and have done well despite their failures. Can't the weaknesses in their batting be eliminated with training and attention. Is the solution only to throw them away and try to get new fellow in. If Ramesh lifts bat high for example, there are so many veterans who could help him. SS Das was praised for never throwing his wicket away and his grit. So just because he for example is poor with backfoot, he is discarded. What kind of reasoning is this? Its pathetic. Why isn't anyone trying to talk to them, train them and try to work their weaknesses out.
I think its not the question of India not being able to find quality openers but its question about how best we use bring the best out of the ones that come on board and how they are given confidence and support and training. Some of the good openers we lost because of this poor attitude are like
in my opinion,ramesh should have been given 1 more chance.he has proved his ability with the bat against the kiwis in the 4 day match.it is true that he lacks the footwork,but although he lacks this ability he has been very effective against the likes of wasim akram,shoaib akthar etc. and about the performance in austalia,how many indian batsmen can proudly claim that they played extremely well in the 2000 series. i personally feel that the selectors are avoiding him on purpose bcos a few yrs back he had submitted a false fitness certificate .it can be noted that after that incident he wasn't selected in any tests although he has played quite well in the domestic games.
