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| Once Upon a Time there were 3 Asians in the England team! |
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| Pitched By Subhangi Sinha | |||||||
| Friday, 21 November 2008 | |||||||
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Including Bopara, Shah & Patel is an attempt to have those who could exploit conditions here SILVER linings can seem like great allies when your chips are down. For England, it would be hard to find some right now, seeing as how they've hit a horrible patch. On the upside though, the visitors can take some solace in the performances of few of their players who've been doing well ever since the team landed in India. Looking back at the three ODI's gives a clear picture as to how the troika of Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah and Samit Patel are not in the team just because of their family names. The presence of players of Asian origin in the team was an expected move by the ECB but having the three in the playing eleven shows that the England team were looking to have players who could easily exploit the Indian conditions. Bopara scored 40 in England's first match and after being promoted up the order to opener on Thursday in Kanpur, the Punjabi origin player was the highest scorer with 60 runs. He has proved to be a great asset to his side, coming good especially when other players hit rock bottom. In fact, Bopara has been a favourite of his captain Kevin Pietersen, who was subjected to a whole lot of ire from many people because he went with Bopara over other players. Pietersen said that Bopara has impressed him immensely. "I am a big Ravi Bopara fan on these types of wickets," England captain Pietersen said on the eve of the Rajkot match, when asked about picking him in the twelve ahead of Luke Wright, who played all five games against South Africa. " He ( Bopara) has been there and thereabouts and we wanted to give him a go. “I have seen a lot of him on television and the way he has played under me, I am impressed with his attitude." Samit Patel has not really dazzled with the ball but has picked up wickets consistently and has also contributed with the bat in nearly every match. In Rajkot, he made 28 and was involved in an important partnership with Bopara. He had picked up two wickets in that match which England lost purely because of Yuvraj Singh. In Kanpur, he made a solid 26 from 29 balls and ensured that his team reached a competitive score at a time when the Indian spinners were calling the shots. "Some of them may be playing in England but their style is very Indian," England batting coach Andy Flower had said. "For example, Patel uses a lot of wrist in his batting, but at the same time he can hit the ball as hard as someone like Kevin Pietersen." The third member of the trio Shah may have his lineage that extends to Pakistan but it was in India that he came to iron out technical flaws during a slump before the 2006 tour. Back then, he had gone to Hyderabad and spent time with Mohammad Azharuddin. In the only Test that Shah played during that tour, he scored a matchwinning 88 in Mumbai. In the Indore ODI, Shah had made 60 runs at a time when Yuvraj was tormenting the Englishmen with his bowling. He also contributed with a decent 40 here as well. The English are in a rut at the moment, but with the way their Asian origin players have performed, a big show from any of them seems to be on the cards.
3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."Newer news items:
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