Pathan picks up gauntlet to knock out the bowling

In the 38 ODIs that Irfan Pathan has played so far, never has he batted above the No 7 position. Until today, when he turned Greg Chappell&#...

In the 38 ODIs that Irfan Pathan has played so far, never has he batted above the No 7 position. Until today, when he turned Greg Chappell’s gamble on its head and, with his senior partner, propelled India to their mammoth 350.

Where did the idea come from? Rahul Dravid, post-match, pointed the finger at Sachin Tendulkar, which makes sense. The two of them opened together in the Challenger Series at Mohali 10 days ago with reasonable success.

And Pathan has played the occasional pinch-hitting role for India in his fledgling career.

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There was one difference today: This was no pinch-hitting. Yes, his 83 runs came off 70 balls, with eight fours and four sixes. But they were all proper cricket shots. This was a batsman’s innings.

Pathan has batted everywhere from 7 to 10, and has even scored a half-century (64, batting at No 8) but has never been seen as more than a possible sting in the tail. Yet the fact that he’s been not out in 10 of his 27 innings is a telling statistic.

The knock reopened several debates and will add to the creases on the selectors’ foreheads when they pick the squad on Friday for the next few matches. Is Pathan a No 3 batsman? Is he an all-rounder?

There were no clear answers today. Dravid, while showering him with praise, didn’t dwell on the future. ‘‘Let’s be sure of one thing…Irfan is among our main bowlers and his job is to bowl well and take wickets. If he is able to contribute in any other way, it’s a bonus,’’ he said.

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Amid the pyrotechincs of Pathan and Tendulkar, it was easy to forget the captain’s own contribution. The 164-run partnership for the second wicket took India to 205 in 30 overs with a run rate close to seven.

But two quick wickets put India on the back foot once again and once again Dravid —with Dhoni — saw the team through. Not surprisingly, he didn’t look as if he was enjoying it; slogging and playing unconventional shots don’t come easy to him, yet his 85 off only 63 deliveries broke the Lankans’ backs.

All this under intense pressure; this was his first match as captain, the opposition had a formidable batting line-up and his own attack was suspect. No wonder he was happy with his performance, as he later revealed. The fact that he’d not been contributing all that well in the past few matches had, he said, been ‘‘troubling’’ him.

He can also take satisfaction at the resurgence of India’s batting depth, where a good hitter like Dhoni can walk out to bat at No 6 and where Venugopala Rao doesn’t even need to bat.

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The trick, of course, is for India to do this not once or twice, but over four or five matches. Consistency has never been a strong suit in the past few years but at least the class is beginning to show.