4 Bowlers who unsuccessfully opened the batting in IPL

The IPL, over the years, has been a breeding ground not just for talented youngsters, but also for innovation and experimentation. T20 is a format which requires you to come up with extensive strategies and match ups and also think on your feet during the game.

While the initial seasons saw a number of switch hits and slower balls coming into play, the teams with every season have pushed the boundaries to think out of the box to come up with fresh ideas that could take the opposition by surprise.

A concept which gained a lot of traction was that of pinch hitters. It required bowlers who could bat decently to play fearless cricket and try to accumulate runs quickly for the batting team. The logic behind it was that the loss of the bowler’s wicket wouldn’t cost much to the team as well. While it wasn’t a new concept, a number of teams started taking a liking towards it and you had a number of teams promoting bowlers who could bat aggressively, up the order to try and gain some momentum in the game.

While most teams promoted the bowlers to numbers three and four, there were a few teams who asked their bowlers to directly open the innings. Sunil Narine has been one of the biggest gainers of this move and having discovered the batsman in himself, he and has now established himself as a destructive opener. However, not each bowler, tried as an opener, possessed the talent of Narine and hence most of them failed to make a mark.

Here we look at four bowlers who unsuccessfully opened the batting in IPL:

1. Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar was always a player who could hang around with the bat and was capable of hitting a few lusty blows down the order. But the cricketing world was shocked when in a match against Delhi Daredevils in 2008, Kumar, playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore was promoted to open the batting. He had to face the master, Glenn McGrath in his very first over, who was perhaps one of the hardest bowlers to face upfront even for a mainstream batsman.

But Kumar raised excitement levels as he smashed McGrath for a boundary on the 2nd ball. After two dots, the Aussies legend decided it was time for the fun to end and dismissed Kumar on the 5th ball and he walked back to the pavilion having scored six runs of five balls. If once wasn’t good enough, the experiment was tried yet again the next year in 2009, when the IPL was held in South Africa.

Kumar was made to open the batting against Chennai Super Kings chasing 180. This time, he couldn’t even get off the mark, being duly dismissed by Manpreet Gony for duck off three balls. After that the experiment to try the pacer from Uttar Pradesh as an opener was never tried again.

2. Ravi Ashwin

MS Dhoni has always been known as a captain who takes risks and always has unconventional ideas up his sleeve. But perhaps even he outdid himself when he took the bold decision to promote Ravichandran Ashwin as an opener in a match against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2013. While Ashwin had proved that he was no mug with the bat and had previously batted in the top order for his state team Tamil Nadu, to do so in an IPL game was a different story altogether.

Dhoni perhaps wanted to test Ashwin’s batting skills and since Chennai Super Kings were chasing a paltry total of 120, he could afford to take the gamble. Ashwin played a couple of elegant strokes but was eventually dismissed for 11 off 13 balls by Sunil Narine.

Ashwin has since then gone on to a score a number of Test hundreds which did corroborate Dhoni’s hypothesis of Ashwin being a more than capable batsman. And while Ashwin has played a number of good innings in the lower middle order for CSK and even KXIP, he hasn’t got a chance to open for an IPL team ever again.

3. Jofra Archer

Jofra Archer has been one of the finds of recent times. He is an incredible bowler and played a crucial role in England winning the World Cup last year. He is renowned for his pace which he uses effectively while delivering toe crushing yorkers and bouncers. But apart from being an excellent bowler, Archer had shown his prowess with the bat as well while playing int the domestic leagues of England.

When Archer was bought by Rajasthan in 2018 for a hefty price, he was looked upon as someone who could be relied upon with the bat as well. All through the season, while Archer was great with the ball, he was a let-down with the bat. Unsatisfied with his returns with the willow Rajasthan went ahead and tried experimenting with Archer as a pinch hitter as they sent him to open in a crucial match against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2018.

He flattered to deceive as he looked highly uncomfortable at the top and succumbed to Umesh Yadav’s pace soon enough as he was dismissed for a duck off four balls. He has never opened the batting for Rajasthan since then, but has won them a couple of games batting in the lower order scoring quickfire 20s.

4. Sam Curran

Another young and talented player to have emerged from England in the last couple of years has been Sam Curran. He made his Test debut against Pakistan in a series in 2018. Then he emerged as the Player of the Series, troubling India not just with the ball but with bat as well. He was lapped up by Kings XI Punjab in the 2019 IPL for a huge sum in excess of seven crore, and in his very second match, Curran was entrusted the with the responsibility of opening the innings.

Curran actually did better than expected, scoring 20 runs off just 10 balls, which included three fours and a six.  Although he was dismissed at a strike of rate 200 after playing some extravagant shots, it was clear that Curran would be a swing and miss player at the top and his run scoring prowess would depend on lot of factors, primarily luck.

Curran was indeed more successful at the role than other bowlers, but that was the last time he batted as an opener for Punjab in the entire season and was utilised much better in the middle and lower middle order where he also scored 55* off just 24 balls. While currently Curran may have not completely succeeded at opening the batting, with his wide array of strokes and the concept of pinch-hitters quickly catching up, we could see him don the role of an opener very soon in the future.