It might not be the right emotion to rejoice at the England Test team’s demise at the hands of Pakistan in the recently concluded series in the United Arab Emirates but one player who benefited most from the side’s dismal showing at the Desert Nation is Ravi Bopara, the middle order batsman for the Essex Eagles who was recalled into the England side as replacement for Eoin Morgan, who was dropped after a run of poor performances. Ironically, it was Morgan who took the place of Bopara when he first burst onto the scene and he is the one who has consistently kept the stylish batsman out of international cricket and confided him to the English County Championship and the Indian Premier League.

But now that Ravi Bopara has made his way back into the England fold for the Test series against Sri Lanka in the sub continent, he will be hoping that he manages to pull off some of his best performances in order to keep his place from Samit Patel, who has also been drafted into the side as bowling alternative to Morgan.

However, cricket experts believe that Bopara will not be benched if he fails to make an impact in his first few innings as the England selectors are now planning to stick with players who have the technique that is required at the very highest level of international cricket and Bopara is one of those players who has already excelled in matches he has played in the Indian sub continent.

But Ravi Bopara will not want to take any chances and try to score as many runs as possible and having played on the spinning sub continental wickets many times, he will want to believe that it will not be as hard for him as for the others.

He has been going in and out of the England Cricket Team for the last couple of years but whenever he gets a chance, Ravi Bopara shows that although he is not indispensible in the side, he is sure dependable when the team faces a crisis as he showed during the stellar 131 run partnership with captain Alastair Cook for the third wicket in the first of the four One Day International matches that England are scheduled to play against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

This win in the first One Day International came much as a surprise for many of the touring media and analysts and cricket experts who have come to the Desert nation with the side, especially after being thrashed 3-0 in the Test series in spite of being the number one ranked Test side according to the rankings of the ICC. And much of the credit for this win goes to captain Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara, who steadied the ship in the middle after the loss of two wickets in quick succession.

Steve Finn, another fellow player from Essex who was deprived of Test action took four wickets in the match to lead England to a 130 run win against Pakistan who had all their big guns back in the side. Bopara, on the other hand would have had to sit out for this match as well if not for the injury sustained by Joe Butler and like all good players wanting a long and successful career, he seized the opportunity with both hands.

Now, England can look forward to returning home with some pride still intact by winning the remaining three matches of the series and with Ravi Bopara in this kind of mood, it gives them every opportunity to do that easily.