Windies First Test, Day One – Bopara's Eternal Reputation Remains In The Balance

"Bopara has done everything right although I still have an irrational mistrust of him." So noted a mate of mine yesterday, as Bopara went about rebuilding after that most English of summer phenomena, the middle-order collapse.

Irrational judgements seem to be the way with cricketers - I can make up my mind within about three innings whether or not I'll like a player for the rest of his career. Butcher, Thorpe, Strauss, Vaughan - will always like them, no matter what they ever do. Bell, Collingwood, Giles, Anderson - eternal mistrust, no matter how well they play. In a sport which is entertaining without ever inciting the same demonic passion as football (Exhibits A, B and C – Messrs Drogba, Ballack and Terry last night) irrational judgements seem strangely acceptable. Cricket after all is a sport more for earnest discussion and polite applause, than vitriolic abuse and foul-mouthed invective.

Back to Bopara. My mate's mind is made up; the jury at More Action, No Plot Towers is, however, temporarily still out. He's started in the right way, but a hundred against an undercooked, ill-prepared Windies team with the looks of chaps who would rather be sipping Malibu on a beach (wouldn't we all?), on an English ground in English conditions, has a bit too much of Ian Bell about it.

Ah, Ian Bell. The sort of blighter who will make hay with a double-century against Bangladesh, then dine off that for two years, keeping his place in the Ashes squad while struggling to make double figures. Is young Bopara the new Bell, or something far more promising? I'm a tad worried that Bopara might not be up to the challenge of Australia, but will be rendered undroppable on the back of some good innings vs the Windies. Still, he has done all that can be expected of him at number three so far (which isn't very far, being only one day) – more than could be said of poor old Owais Shah last winter. Time shall tell. Hindsight shall be 20-20.