Bopara credits Gooch for Test success

England v West Indies, 2nd Test, Riverside, 1st day

Bulletin by Shwe Wai

	Ravi Bopara now looks right at home in Test cricket after a difficult start which included three consecutive ducks.

Chris Gayle is not enthralled by Test cricket, but for Ravi Bopara it holds a special place - and that's coming from a player who can be assured of making a fortune in the Twenty20 game. After listening to the depressing overtures from the West Indies captain, Bopara's youthful exuberance and excitement at his continued success was a timely reminder of the pride the five-day game can bring.

Sadly the crowd was as meagre as expected - the official figure of 5000 seemed very generous - and there are clearly issues the Test game needs to address to secure its future. That is a job for the administrators, but the players must play their part by performing with passion. The attitude of a young cricketer like Bopara can show the way.

"Playing in the IPL was amazing, it was a great experience and I'd love to do it again," Bopara said. "Then again, Test cricket is still the pinnacle of the game. The feeling I got at Lord's reaching a hundred and the feeling I got here, there's no better feeling. I don't know if that's because I had a bad run in Sri Lanka but as a young boy I've always wanted to play Test cricket. My heroes have done extraordinary stuff and you want to do what your heroes have done. All forms of the game are very important to me."

That poor run Bopara alluded to has made his re-emergence as a Test player even more impressive. When he was left sprawling in the Galle dirt in late December 2007, having been embarrassingly run out from slip by Mahela Jaywardene, it completed a pair for the match and three consecutive ducks. Bopara looked anything but a Test cricketer.

As he returned to the dressing room in Galle, he vowed to become better for the experience. "Sri Lanka was possibly the toughest part of my career. Not at one point did I feel uncomfortable, it just seemed to happen so quickly," he said. "I just kept getting out and kept finding ways to get out as well. But not for one moment did I think I wasn't going to play Test cricket again or it's the end for me. I knew I was going to come back and knew I was going to be a better player. From the moment I got run out in that last Test I went back into the changing rooms and said I knew what I had to do and I'm going to come back stronger.