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India in Australia 2007-08

Patience pays for Rogers

Peter English

January 15, 2008

	Better red than dead: Chris Rogers will want to capitalise on a rare opening in the national team © Getty Images

Openings for Australian openers are rare and Chris Rogers must have wondered whether he had missed his chance when he spent the first Test of the home summer in rehabilitation instead of at the Gabba. Rogers and Phil Jaques had been trying to out-stare each other since the retirement of Justin Langer last January, but the battle between two men who swear they are friends ended in October when Rogers experienced serious stomach pain.

The upshot was an operation to take out his appendix and it seemed like his medium-term Test prospects had also been removed. Matthew Hayden's spot was among the safest in the team and Jaques re-started his Test career with back-to-back centuries against Sri Lanka.

While top-order vacancies are scarce, Rogers, a short-sighted Western Australian, didn't have to look far for role models of patience. Justin Langer had spent years in and out of the team before making the first of many lasting impressions and Michael Hussey chipped away for a decade before becoming an overnight success.

Hayden's leg injury, which ended his 86-Test streak, meant Rogers, who is 30, had to wait only another two months for an opportunity and he will walk out with Jaques, his former Australia A partner, in the third Test. Ricky Ponting confirmed the change at the WACA and the locals will have another left-hander to praise on Wednesday.

Rogers, a batsman more like Langer and Hussey than Adam Gilchrist, will become the country's 399th Test player and the first proud redhead to play for Australia since Craig McDermott finished in 1996. Hair shades in a team of natural and bottle blonds aren't normally a big deal, but the characteristic features heavily in profiles of Rogers, who is also colour blind and sometimes struggles to pick up the ball in a background of seats.

When given three words to describe himself Rogers uses "cheeky, irritating and red" and his personal motto is "better red than dead". A steak-and-chips man, Rogers also keeps his batting simple and has refined a method that has been successful on the speed of Perth, the seam of England and the low-bouncing pitches of Pakistan.

Like Langer and Hussey, Rogers is capable of large scores - he has a triple-century for Northamptonshire and 279 for Western Australia - but his most important innings was 219 for Leicestershire against Australia in 2005. Rogers was such a pain to his country's side during the match that the tourists sledged him, saying he should get out in the national interest. He stayed true to himself and remained until dismissed by Stuart MacGill after hitting 32 fours and three sixes.

Despite making such a strong statement, he was not elevated to a national contract until posting 1202 Pura Cup runs in 2006-07. Since the operation he has not recaptured his previously outstanding touch, but he picked up 60 in the tour game against India last week and hit a century for his club South Perth on Sunday, which included a six to win the one-day quarter-final against Langer's team. However, neither innings will matter much when he finally makes his Test debut.

Peter English is the Australasia editor of Cricinfo

© Cricinfo