Bopara aiming to cash in
Ravi Bopara is confident he can continue to bounce back from the first major blip in his career - and will be out to prove it against New Zealand at the Rose Bowl this week.
The Essex all-rounder demonstrated his blistering early-season form with a first-innings half-century against the tourists at Chelmsford.
He then underlined his determination to win back his England place by turning down the chance to earn a substantial sum for a stint at an unnamed Indian Premier League franchise.
But his decision to reject the opportunity to join Hampshire's Dimitri Mascarenhas in a money-spinning spell on the sub-continent shows he is eager to use the domestic season as a springboard for further international honours.
The selectors retain faith, too, giving him another chance for England Lions in the tourists’ final warm-up match before the first npower Test at Lord’s on May 15.
One of their number, James Whitaker, was present to see Bopara’s latest fifty in his county’s defeat by the Kiwis - but that is the sort of potential distraction the Essex number three has no trouble shutting out of his mind.
“I saw him here - but I don’t put pressure on myself, thinking 'there’s a selector here’,” Bopara said.
Bopara had a lean time in Sri Lanka with England over the past winter © Getty ImagesBuy this photo He will rely on the same sort of clear thinking in Southampton too.
“I’m not putting too much pressure on myself, saying it’s on a bigger stage. A game of cricket is a game of cricket.
“I’ll be up against the same team, maybe with one or two changes - so in a way for me, it will be no different to the match at Chelmsford,” he added.
There, Bopara was a little cross with himself for getting out when set - but the hope is he could be saving more runs for next time.
“It was a bit annoying to get out on 60-odd,” he admitted. “It would have been nice to get another hundred. But maybe I can go and cash in with a big one in the next match.”
That optimism is thousands of miles away from the miseries of Colombo and Galle - yet, far from forgetting the bad times, Bopara is determined to use them to his advantage.
He chooses not to talk publicly about the initials ’SL’ notched discreetly on the back of his bat to remind him of how tough it can get.
But that ongoing memo to aid concentration is part of a philosophy which has served him well so far.
“A lot of cricket is played in the mind,” he acknowledges. “You’ve got to be strong; you’ve got to be tough on yourself - and that’s the only way to improve.
“You’ve got to go through the bad times to get the good times. There could be even worse times to come, but then you come back even better. That’s the best thing about cricket.”
Those words come as no surprise to Bopara’s fellow Essex and England batsman Alastair Cook, who has long recognised huge ability and burning ambition in his team-mate.
Daniel Vettori is confident that he will be fully fit for the first npower Test © Getty ImagesBuy this photo “I’ve always said he’s probably one of the most talented youngsters I’ve ever seen,” said the England opener.
“He’s a very harsh critic on himself and is always looking for perfection - and the few knocks he’s played this year have not been that far away.”
More of the same would do just nicely this week - but New Zealand, of course, have different ideas.
The tourists will again be captained by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum, in the absence of the injured Daniel Vettori, who remains confident his split spinning finger will have healed in time for Lord’s.
Vettori is satisfied, too, that the Kiwis are beginning to show they are good enough to test their hosts this summer - despite their inexperienced batting line-up.
“It would be great to have 60 or 70 Tests in the top order - but we don’t have that,” he accepted.
“We think we’ve got some really talented batsmen there - guys like Ross Taylor and Jamie How - who can be very good Test players for New Zealand for a long period of time.
“It’s just a matter of trying to get them up to that level as quickly as possible.”
The perception is that New Zealand often have to rely on their lower order to get them out of trouble - and there was again evidence of that against Essex.
But Vettori sees that as a strength, as long as the frontline batsmen pull their weight too. “We’ve seen the way (tailender) Kyle Mills has batted at Chelmsford - and he’s got a first-class hundred,” he said.
“We do have a good tail but we want to utilise it by giving them a decent score to work with.
“If the team is 200 for three and our tail can take over, then that makes us even more potent.”
Ravi Bopara is determined to make the most of his England Lions opportunities this week
