Opening an innings

But isn8217;t Test cricket all about technique? How on earth could Ramesh have gone so far so soon if he didn8217;t have the technique? Both the questions probably endup with a one-word nine-letter answer hidden somewhere inside Boycott8217;s wrap-up: attitude.

Forget the footwork, or lack of it, and you realise that it is almost as if Ramesh knows that the ball is going to hit the middle of the bat as soon as he reaches for it. It8217;s that thick streak of self-belief which puts the 23-year-old left-handed opener on a different level compared to the rest of the pack waiting in the queue. With that comes the timing, and all those boundaries as the bowler8217;s pace is repeatedly, and cruelly, used as a counter.

Check out what K. Srikkanth said when he plugged for an India cap for Ramesh: 8220;What makes me talk with conviction is the manner in which he took on the West Indian fast bowlers A8217; team in Bangalore last year. He played them with ease in both the innings. He was in command from the first delivery. In fact in the second innings, he had the bowlers on the defensive by the fifth over itself. He has the extra time to play his shots, which enables him to play all around thewicket.8221;

However, Srikkanth, the India A8217; coach, will also be the first person to tell Ramesh that his biggest strength could very well turn out to be his worst drawback, too. Remember, confidence is a two-way alley which has been visited before by batsmen like the late Raman Lamba. As Sunil Gavaskar would remind you, in the long run, it is just technique that pulls you out of the quicksand waiting at every turn in Test cricket.

No wonder then, that Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram remarked after his Indian tour last week, 8220;It will be interesting to see how Ramesh keeps going like this.8221; As Akram added, there is no doubt about Ramesh8217;s talent, but what will happen once that mental wall is breached? What will happen to this immovable asset once he steps out of the sub-continent?

Surely, it will take much more than just self-belief and attitude to survive against bowlers like Allan Donald, Darren Gough or Glenn McGrath. And, when they finally get through that mental barrier, Ramesh may suddenly find thatwonderful sense of timing deserting him, the cheers turning into crude catcalls, and all those would-be boundaries ending up in the slip fielder8217;s hands. In fact, Ramesh8217;s moment of reckoning will come soon, as soon as this winter8217;s tour of Australia.

Will he survive? The modest touch artist from Chennai is already working on the answer. The homework, in fact, started much before his Test debut after he had shredded the West Indies A8217; team pacemen in Bangalore. Later, Gundappa Vishwanath came up and passed on the first important tip. 8220;He asked me to get on top of the ball before going for the square-cut and I8217;ve started working on it,8221; says Ramesh. What also goes in his favour as he attempts to iron out those edges is the little-known nugget that he has seen a lot of cricket from the bowler8217;s end. The cricket fields of Chennai met Ramesh first as an off-spinner before he started to pick up the runs for his senior division league side about three years ago.

Then came the break in the form of a 195against Kerala for the Tamil Nadu under-22 side and a place in the Ranji probables list. A century on debut followed and Ramesh8217;s career was off as fast as those off-side hits to the fence. Maybe, it was a bit too fast for the selectors8217; liking too, for he was denied a place in the Deodhar Trophy team and the Irani Trophy despite piling over 700 Ranji runs in his debut season.

And, not surprisingly, India almost lost an opening batsman at that juncture. His morale took a nosedive the next year, in the 1997-98 season till a half-century for the Board Presidents8217; XI against Australia early last year pulled him back. Those valuable runs also gave him the confidence to take on an international bowling side last year as Ian Bishop and his West Indies A side realised during the 138 he scored on that occasion.

That was before he became the third Tamil Nadu opener to play for India in the last 10 years after Srikkanth and W.V Raman. And, while the going is good, there8217;s much more coming from Ramesh8217;s bat to addto 43, 5, 60, 96, 79, 60 and 143 so far. But what will happen when he finally reaches that dangerous career-curve? Only time and technique can answer that one.