‘Indian opening woes surprising’

In his 46 Test match career, he was dropped thrice—for Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden.

“It’s really surprising that Indian openers have struggled. Dravid has had a difficult tour, but he came through as a make-shift opener. Wasim Jaffer is a pretty good opener, but he struggled as well. Australia is one of the better places to bat against the hard new ball, after the first initial 10-15 overs, it’s easy to cash on,” he said.

“When you are on the first tour Down Under it takes a bit of time to adjust and it is an eye-opener for a batsman. But I am happy that they have got back an aggressive opener in (Virender) Sehwag. It’s good to dominate and that’s the way to play here in Australia,” he said.

Blewett spoke about his enormous admiration for Hayden because despite his age, he’s been doing a great job. “As you get older, opening the innings becomes mentally challenging and that is why I have such enormous respect for Hayden. He’s been able to wake himself up and cross those challenges each time and that’s wonderful.”

On a second thought, Blewett would have preferred to stay down in the batting order, where he started off early in his career. He went on to open the innings and also play at No. 3. a position which he incidentally dominated in the domestic circuit.

At his home ground, Blewett felt that despite big scores, the match would yield a result. “It’s normally the last afternoon when Test matches here are decided. Batting in the fourth innings will be a lot difficult and the ball will spin and bounce a lot.

“I think Indians have brought themselves to a good position here,” he concluded.