He can bowl a bit, field in slips, even keep wickets. But it’s when he walks out to open the innings that Robin Uthappa hopes India will sit up and watch.

Hours after he became the latest face in coach Greg Chappell’s Vision World Cup 2007, the ‘slam-bang’ Karnataka right-hander shrugged off the poor form that dogged him last season to say, ‘‘It basically boils down to the mind at this level. And I think I am ready for Team India.’’

But then the 20-year-old from India’s coffee country, Coorg, has always been the kind of cricketer who takes life like his batting—on the frontfoot, on the rise.

No half measures, he says, even if it has meant that he often gives it up when set for much more—five Ranji half centuries last season, with a topscore of 96.

And in between, that one big innings that caught Chappell’s eye—116 of 93 balls for India B in the Mohali Challenger Series against the India A trio of V R V Singh, R P Singh and R Balaji.

Interestingly enough, Uthappa says he was not a natural born opener. “In junior cricket, I started off as a middle-order bat and bowled a bit of off-spin. Later, when my team needed a keeper, I kept wickets for a couple of years... At times, I also came up with some medium-pace,’’ he says.

The turnaround, he says, was steered by former Karnataka star and coach Jeswant. ‘‘He has done a great job with a young side and has carried us through troubled times well,’’ says Uthappa, who made his Ranji debut in 2002-03.

... contd.