Published: Dec 09, 2016, 12:48 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 09, 2016, 12:48 PM (IST)
After trying 10 batsmen for the opening slot in Tests with Alastair Cook since the retirement of Andrew Strauss, England have struggled a lot in getting a perfect opening partner for the skipper. Those 10 players included, Nick Compton, Joe Root, Michael Carberry, Sam Robson, Jonathan Trott, Adam Lyth, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales and Ben Duckett. England finally got some hope when they got a young Lancashire batsman named Haseeb Hameed, who was rated quite highly by former English players even before his Test debut. As expected, Hameed lived up to his expectations when given chance to open batting with captain Cook in the ongoing Test series in India.
Hameed impressed everyone with his text book style of batting and there was not only sound technique on display, but runs too came from his bat when needed. Before being ruled out from the series because of injury after the third Test of the series, Hameed scored 219 runs at an impressive average of 43.80. He has been famously given a nickname “Baby Boycott” and this name was given to him way before making his Test debut. It is his disciplined batting and unflappable style which has earned him this name. However, the original Boycott — Geoffrey Boycott, never played for Lancashire.
Despite being ruled out from the series after injury, Hameed decided to return back from London to be with the team till the end of series and guess what, he got to meet the original Boycott during the ongoing fourth Test in Mumbai. Both had a little chat during the game and a short clip of 11 seconds was tweeted by the official Twitter account of Test match special.
The moment @HaseebHameed97 met @GeoffreyBoycott! pic.twitter.com/4fyXHy9PuP
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) December 9, 2016
Hameed was looking a bit shy while talking to Boycott. In between, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar also played his part by trying to listen what these two were talking about by eavesdropping.
Boycs with Hameed & unknown to them is Sunny Gavaskar listening in to ensure the advice is right? @bbctms @Aggerscricket @MichaelVaughan pic.twitter.com/6odlWX1S6H
— PRAKASH WAKANKAR (@pakwakankar) December 9, 2016
In place of Hameed, Keaton Jennings filled the void of second opener with Cook and scored a magnificent hundred on debut at Wankhede Stadium. Well, seems like England’s hunt for perfect opening partner of Cook has been solved with two good openers in the ranks. In fact, it has now created a problem of plenty.
When Baby Boycott met Geoffrey Boycott
