Bopara driven by tough memories

Ravi Bopara has a special bond with Sri Lanka. When he came here four years ago as England's next middle-order hope, he struggled so badly he scored 42 runs in five innings, including three consecutive ducks, and went back with "SL" written on the back of his bat to remind himself how tough it was.

Earlier that year, playing only his fifth ODI, in the World Cup in West Indies, Bopara and Paul Nixon had nearly pulled off a heist against Sri Lanka. From 133 for 6, they took England to needing four off the last ball, only to be denied by Dilhara Fernando, who pulled out of the delivery first to see what Bopara was going to, and then bowled a delivery that hit the top of off.

Bopara talks candidly about those two connections with Sri Lanka. "I was quite young then," he said two days before he renews his relationship with them, in another World Cup match, a quarter-final this time. "Unfortunately then I didn't know how to hit a six. We didn't used to practise it back then - clearing the front leg and hitting over mid-on. So I didn't know what to do. I just carried on what I was trying to do, which was squirt it behind point and through extra cover and that sort of stuff. If I was to face that ball now, four years later, I would try and hit that ball straight over mid-on's head."

Bopara gives Fernando credit too. "It was a clever move I think [to pull out of the delivery first time around]," he said. "He knew what I was trying to do. I didn't change what I was going to do. In fact I should have just pulled away when he ran up the second time. But I didn't think that far ahead. I was just concentrating on trying to hit the ball for at least three."

Although Bopara can afford to look back at that delivery with relative amusement, the Test tour that followed later that year still rankles. He was so down on himself he didn't want to let himself forget Sri Lanka. Hence the little note at the back of the bat. "Just 'SL' for Sri Lanka," Bopara said. "Just how tough it was. It's a horrible place to be when you've got such high expectations of yourself, and you don't quite cut it. It's a horrible place to be.

"I don't write it any more. I did when I went back just to remind myself of how tough it was then, and the feelings I had during that Test series. I was just breaking into the Test team thinking I had 10 or 12 years of Test cricket ahead. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. When players put a lot of pressure on themselves, sometimes they can buckle, and that's what I've done to myself a couple of times, even during the Ashes. I thought I would have learnt from the Sri Lanka experience, but obviously I didn't. But I definitely have learnt now. I think a lot comes from expectation, but I've found out ways to deal with it as I walk out to bat."

Four years on from those two experiences with Sri Lanka, Bopara was not even an original choice to be at the World Cup. He made it, though, as replacement for the injured Eoin Morgan, and was Man of the Match against South Africa in a low-scoring win that has gone a long way in keeping England alive in this tournament. Right now it is possible that he might be asked to step up and open the innings for England, given how Matt Prior hasn't been much of a success in that makeshift role so far.

Bopara certainly wouldn't mind the move. "I'd love to open the batting," he said. "My ambition isn't to bat five, six or seven for the rest of my career, but let's just see what happens. I haven't been told anything, I don't know if anyone has been told anything, so as far as I know it's the same."

Bopara had opened on 14 previous occasions for England with a modest average of 29 mirroring that of his career. "I would like to have had a longer run at it," he said. "I felt the easiest place to open was in India. It's obviously a bit harder in England because of the new ball up front. That's something you've got to get used to, but the more you open the better you get at it. Some of the best players in the world have spent time at the top of the order, and they've got used to it and now the top 10 batters in the world all bat at the top of the order."

There is more happening in the Test side that should excite Bopara. Paul Collingwood's retirement could open a door for a return, which is Bopara's ultimate aim. "I want to play Test cricket," he said. "I don't just want to play one-day cricket or Twenty20. I enjoy playing Test cricket and playing four days for Essex. Scoring hundreds and taking wickets and that sort of stuff. And that was my ambition as a young boy - to go out and play Test cricket and make a difference for England and be hopefully one of England's great players."

For now, though, Tests can wait. For now, Bopara is in Sri Lanka, and needs to go back with happier memories.