Sunil Narine was always regarded as one of the most amazing bowlers of this generation. His off spin deceived the batters, his variations brought difficulties to even the best players and his googlies were a piece of pure magic. One always considered him to be primarily a bowler, who could just contribute a little if none with his bat. However, the perception changed for the good of the game as he was given a chance to open the innings. And he took the cricketing world by storm when he started to open the batting for his team.

And it turned to be a game changes for whichever team he played for. Yesterday, he went on to score a sensational quick fire century which was his first one in all the T20's he played till date. Knowing what he could do with the bat it was evident that some day or the other, this was bound to happen, and it did happen yesterday. His onslaught in the initial overs just put the Rajasthan Royals on back foot, which was similar to his innings played against Delhi Capitals. And his innings was loved by all the fans across the globe. But how come a bowler, who hardly contributed with the bat turn into a rock solid opener?

The answer lies in understanding a term called as pinch hitter. Pinch hitter is someone who is not a regular batter, but has the capacity to hit the ball harder, and is promoted up the order to accelerate the team's run rate. In case the wicket of that player falls while they continue to hit, its still not a bigger loss as recognized batters are yet to come. On many occasions the teams send pinch hitters to open in T20's. And with the same strategy, Sunil Narine was sent to open along with Aaron FInch for Melbourne Renegades 7 years back. Although on the 3 occasions he opened the innings, he wasn't able to score many runs but he did the job of giving a good start.

And his antics of Big Bash League were very well spotted by the watchful eyes of Gautam Gambhir, who loves to identify strengths of players from his squad. And he decided to do the same in the IPL 2017. That's when, he promoted Sunil Narine up the order to open the innings. Since many of the fans and players had no clue about Narine as an opener, it came as a surprise to them. Narine's job was to hit the ball harder enough to clear the fence with the aim of having a good start. And he proved Gambhir's decision of promoting him in front of Robin Uthappa right by playing a cameo of 37 runs off 18 balls, putting pressure on RCB bowlers.

And since then he never looked back. In the same season he hit the the fastest half century taking only 17 deliveries to reach there. It was astonishing to see a part time pinch hitter hit the fastest fifty, when the batters were expected to do so. He continued his onslaught against opponents, and it worked on many occasions and on some it backfired. Initially he used to just mindlessly slog the ball, but later he developed proper cricketing shots. And today we see Narine opening the innings and scoring fast runs with clean hitting and eye pleasing drives, all at a good strike rate. A result of all these was when he reached to his maiden century in T20's which came off Rajasthan Royals in the encounter which happened yesterday.

With the century, Sunil Narine entered the elite list of players to have a a hat-trick, a century in the IPL along with atleast one title to their name. The only other member to have achieved the same is the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. And Narine had spoken about it back in 2013 that he wanted to be in that elite list, and he did it. It was possible because of Gautam Gambhir giving him the opportunity to open the innings, and trusting him even when he failed on a lot of occasions. And hence one saw one of the best spinners turn into a swashbuckling all rounder who could serve the team in multiple ways. We congratulate Narine to achieve this unique and rare feat in T20's and wish to see him perform the same going ahead.