Australia vs India 2018-19: The importance of Hanuma Vihari’s innings in the MCG Test

Hanuma Vihari was asked to open the innings in the Boxing Day Test in the absence of two regular openers who had failed spectacularly in the first two Tests. As a Chief Selector, MSK Prasad had clarified earlier, this was going to be a make-shift arrangement.

For Vihari too, this was a new position. So, to don a new role that too at the international stage against a top side on their home turf would have been a daunting task for him.

The choice for the make-shift opener to partner Mayank Agarwal was to be made between Rohit Sharma and Hanuma Vihari. By choosing Vihari as the opener and Rohit at number six, the think tank also gave a signal when it came to a middle-order slot, Rohit was above Vihari in the pecking order.

So, one can only guess how much pressure he must have been under when he came to open the innings. Now that his first innings is over, it is time to see how well or badly the make-shift opener fared.

There are a couple of ways of looking at the innings. The first thing to note was that he scored only eight runs. The average per innings score for each of the two discarded openers, Vijay and Rahul, was around 12 in the first two Tests. So, in terms of runs, he has actually fared worse than both Rahul and Vijay.

But, apart from scoring runs, the other crucial role of an opening batsman is to occupy the crease long enough to blunt the new ball and take the shine off the new ball so that the job becomes easier for the middle-order batsmen. Neither Vijay nor Rahul had succeeded in doing that in the first two Tests.

From that point of view, Vihari’s innings on the opening day at Melbourne was an important one. He blunted the new ball. Though at times, he struggled, especially against short-pitched bowling, he hung in there and did not play a loose shot.

By the time he was finally out, trying to fend off a rising short-pitched delivery from Pat Cummins, he had already seen off 66 deliveries. And the Indian innings was well into the nineteenth over, and the shine from the new ball had worn off.

Though his innings was short, Vihari has done an admirable role as a makeshift opener. It is time for other Indian batsmen to ensure that the cushion provided by Vihari is well used by them so that India end up with a substantial first innings total.