Shiv Sunder Das has been left out of the Indian one-day squad thatwill play in the triangular series with Zimbabwe and West Indies butthe diminutive opener is hardly complaining

20-Jun-2001Shiv Sunder Das has been left out of the Indian one-day squad thatwill play in the triangular series with Zimbabwe and West Indies butthe diminutive opener is hardly complaining.With the best average and highest run aggregate in the Test seriesagainst Zimbabwe, the technically sound Das has certainly proved hismettle on fast and bouncy tracks too.And as he leaves for India today, Das has already identified the areashe needs to work upon ahead of the tours of Sri Lanka and SouthAfrica.”I need to improve upon my backlift. I will be practicing on cementwickets with plastic balls,” said the affable Das in an interview toPTI.Das realises the importance of hard work and extensive practice andbefore coming to Zimbabwe, he had practiced playing outgoingdeliveries and learnt from the experiences of his seniors.”I practiced a lot about the deliveries leaving outside the off-stump.I also practiced how not to play on the rise and I spoke a lot toseniors like Sourav (Ganguly) and Rahul (Dravid) in the Chennai camp(ahead of the tour),” he says.The preparations paid rich dividends as Das notched up 239 runs fromfour innings at an average of 79.67 with a highest score of 82 notout. The effort got him the man of the series award in just his thirdTest series.Success did not come easily to him, though. Das admitted he haddifficulty in putting all his preparations into practice straightawayand he struggled in the first few innings in the tour matches.”I really struggled in the first game of the tour at Mutare. I didn’tplay well. I realised I was not really moving my feet in line with theball. I corrected it and the hundred against CFX Academy (in the nextgame) really gave me confidence,” he said.Such constant reviews of his performance have helped Das in improvinghis already solid technique which many experts believe is similar tothe legendary Sunil Gavaskar. Das most certainly is the first genuineTest opener for India after Gavaskar left the scene in 1987.And he echoes the master batsman when he says, “As an opener, you mustwatch for balls outside the off-stump all the time. You must knowwhere your off-stump is.”He certainly knew where his off-stump was on this tour with homecaptain Heath Streak saying that only if the other Indian batsmen hademulated Das, India would have put up a much better fight in thesecond Test that the visitors lost by four wickets to see their dreamsof a series win being dashed.”Das was among the few Indian batsmen who showed the patience requiredon wickets with a little bit of extra bounce. He knew exactly wherehis off-stump was and he didn’t play unnecessary shots. And the rewardwas there for him,” Streak said.Das says he has acquired the correct technique while playing on unevensurfaces in Orissa. “Playing on matting wicket at home has reallyhelped. For one, it has helped me play bouncing deliveries well. Ithas also improved my backfoot play which is essential for an opener,”Das said.Das still had some problems against the rising deliveries during thehome series against Australia when he took a lot of body blows fromthe pace battery of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Damien Fleming.”I was having a few problems against the Australians. When the ballwas bouncing, I was not watching the ball, but later I think I playedthem well. Getting runs against the likes of McGrath, Gillespie and(Shane) Warne was really encouraging,” he said.The patience which he has displayed in his batting is evident in hisoverall approach to the game and future plans too as he dismissessuggestions that he was prone to getting out just when he seemed to beset.”I may have missed out on hundreds, but they were not bad efforts. Thebig hundreds will come. After all I have played just seven Testmatches,” said Das, whose only Test hundred came in the second matchin the home series against Zimbabwe last year.Keen to contribute something more than the runs he scores, Das hastaken some brilliant catches at forward short leg, a position hespecialises in while fielding. “I just love fielding. I used to do alot of catching when I was a kid. I was inspired to stand in thisposition because of a few outstanding catches I have seen being takenin that position, I get hit sometimes but it doesn’t deter me,” hesaid.His captain Sourav Ganguly was all praise for him but said Das shouldnow be ready to handle the growing expectations of his fans. “Thepressure will now begin for him. People will start expecting runs fromhim, every time he goes in. It will altogether be a differentpressure,” Ganguly said.But physical and mental toughness is something Das has acquired rightfrom his childhood. “It’s because things don’t happen easily inOrissa. You don’t get things easy out there. It makes you very tough,physically and mentally,” he said.