By IANS,
Durban : South African selection panel chief Mike Procter believes in the credentials of Ashwell Prince as a Test cricket opening batsman.
Procter was central to the controversial decision to recall the gritty left-hander in the role of opener for the victorious third Test against Australia at Newlands — and Prince produced a vintage innings of 150 in South Africa’s sole innings of 651.
Now Procter sees healthy parallels in Prince with the great Barry Richards.
“It reminded me of the case of Richards; we were actually chatting about it the other day and I said ‘didn’t that suddenly happen to you many years ago?’.
“Barry played a couple of seasons for Natal batting at four, and then the convenor of selectors at Kingsmead, Derek Dowling, suddenly told him he was opening the batting.
“I asked him what his reaction was and he said �well, Proc, you know what it was like in those days you were told to open so you just opened’.
“And the rest, as they say, is history. I think he got a couple of hundreds, too, in his first three knocks, so already there are some similarities with Ashwell,” Procter was quoted as saying in the South African media Tuesday.
Procter was referring also to Prince registering 254 as an opener in the SuperSport Series match for the Warriors against the Titans immediately preceding the first Test.
Procter feels the opening slot may have opened a new door for Prince in terms of heavy scoring for his country.
“When you think about it, would Ashwell have had the opportunity to actually make 250 and 150 — and those are pretty special statistics — batting at five or six?
“Suddenly with the new ball and being up front there, he went and got big runs. He just looked the part.
“Ashwell doesn’t play the balls he doesn’t have to in the first half-hour of an innings, which is a really important asset. But he also punishes the bad balls, especially as he’s a fine timer of his strokes,” said the former international.