Hanuma Vihari, the new No.3, is part-Dravid and part-Pujara yet his own man

Beside the ropes that bind the nets, back-from-injury Shubman Gill was keenly waiting for his chance to bat. But the man in the middle, in an uncharacterically murderous frame of mind and demolishing everything thrown at him, was in no mood to leave. Gill ambled about restlessly, throwing furtive sideways glances at the batter, at times applauding some of his strokes, before he lingered on pleadingly. But the batsman was in no mood to snap his nets-time reverie, ahead of the second Test, a Day-night game, that starts in Bangalore on Saturday.
Finally, he had to be coaxed out of the nets. He didn’t un-pad, swapped his helmet for a floppy hat, but dragged throw-down special Raghu to the opposite nets, instructed him to bowl the sweepable length, and kept sweeping him and sweeping him, nothing in the air, all along the ground.

After a while, Raghu was summoned to the other nets. He followed him, to his joy, found a vacant nets and encamped himself there until almost till the end of the training. It was India’s new No.3 Hanuma Vihari, his appetite to bat, even in the nets, voracious.
It should not surprise the beholders — after all he used to make his childhood coach John Manoj run to the physiotherap for his battered shoulders after his ward made him throw a thousand throw-downs at him. He used to joke: “I was more like a bowling machine to him.” Raghu could vouch, and so would a raft of his bowling colleagues.
Hanuma Vihari in action.(Source: PTI/File)
The time, finally, has arrived for him to reproduce that hunger in the middle. He is no longer the bit-part, any-role utility man, able to play a range or roles, and be merely content with putting the team first. But the No.3 of a team that aspires to be the No.1 in the world.
Not only numerically but also in terms of dominating teams. Just to get a grasp of the footsteps he has to trail and the pressure that comes with it, he just needs to run an eye around the careers of two of his predecessors and their immense body of work. The immediate one, Cheteshwar Pujara accumulated 6713 runs in 95 Tests, won his country Test matches home and abroad, and moreover soaked 93 balls a game. And his predecessor, Rahul Dravid, the coach, is considered one of the finest batsmen at this position of all time.

Inheritances, thus, could be burdensome. So are the duties that entail the role, almost a niche. Almost always, he has to pad up with the openers and be ready to bat from the second ball. Almost like an opener, has to size up the pitch hands-on, soak up the pressure, lay the foundation, infuse stability and counterpunch if need be. Then there are times you need to bat like a No.4, be assertive and dominating, if the openers have furnished a stable start.
It’s also where numbers matter. You might wear blows on your chest and body, you might have blunted a tough spell when the ball had hummed and hemmed around, but in the end, you are judged the number, big numbers. How Pujara would be ruing the 90s and the 70s in his long century-less phase that eventually cost him the spot in the team. Vihari’s own international career has rolled out thus—a lot of fighting half-centuries and solid 30s and 40s, but just one hundred in 24 innings.
A lot of those scores owe to the positions he had batted — 16 times at No.6 or 7. Vihari is no stranger to the role or its demands, though at the domestic level. For both Andhra, his state side, and India A, he normally bats at No. 3 or at times, he opens. An average of 55.90 in 162 innings, though at a slightly lower rung, conveys that he has the bearings of one. Here, one has to trust the judgment of Dravid as well, for he has been part of numerous A tours with Vihari, especially overseas.
For both Andhra, his state side, and India A, he normally bats at No. 3 or at times, he opens. (File)
In Mohali too, he looked utterly comfortable in his new role, until he was lured into driving away from the body. But the audition would only get tougher and testier.There are a few traits he shares with both Dravid and Pujara, though he should not be viewed with the same lens as them.
He is unpretentious and self-effacing (shier than Pujara when he broke into the national team), and has a capacity to conceal his emotions. There’s a boy-next-door vibe about him than that of a No.3 batsman. He doesn’t spot tattoos, doesn’t exude swagger, seldom instagrams or tweets and when he tweets, he is cruelly trolled.Sample: After he made 20 and 40 not out in Johannesburg, he tweeted: Need to make the starts count more. Will try harder next game.”
Flew in responses like “you won’t be even playing the next Test.” But he would be the last one to be lured into an angry response. During the second wave of the pandemic, he was busy arranging supplies for those badly affected back home even though he was playing county cricket.

He, though, is a different batsman than both Dravid and Pujara. Like Pujara, he does possess a pronounced front-foot stride, but is a smarter accumulator of singles and doubles. He embraces aggression more seamlessly too. He is less stylish than Dravid, though like both he could bat time and occupy the crease without a flash of indiscretion. He has that quiet tenacity too. A reason he became India’s go-to utility man. Open the innings, he could. Save a Test match, he could. Be the batting all-rounder, he did. Prowl the deep he would, crouch at short-leg or stand at slips, he would.
The other day, during the evening practice with the pink ball, when Mayank Agarwal was dropping catches, Dravid immediately summoned Vihari, who put in a spirited shift. He has been shuttled in and out of the team like few others since his debut, a phase wherein he has missed more Tests that he had played. But not shades of bitterness; no burst of outrage. Whatever role you give him, there is a minimum guarantee he assures, so much so that he is considered something of an epitome of selflessness. Something of a safety valve.

But at No.3, being positively selfish wouldn’t hurt him. Rather, it’s a necessity. For in the end, on the judgement day, icy numbers and hundreds shall outweigh the rare traits of tenacity and selflessness. Vihari himself would rather be remembered for his runs and hundreds than his qualities.