If agriculture commissioner-designate Dacian Ciolos was a cricketer, then you'd look no further for someone to open the batting.
His performance on Friday at his so-called "confirmation hearing" in front of the European parliament's agriculture committee in Brussels was confident, patient and effective as he met every delivery with a straight bat.
It was in stark contrast to Mariann Fischer Boel's performance at the same stage five years ago, who was frequently trapped in front of the stumps and failed to spot even the most obvious of googlies. She had to endure the indignity of a second innings before the MEPs were satisfied she was fit for office.
But setting aside the cricketing analogy, this was the first time I'd seen Mr Ciolos in action and I have admit I was impressed, both by what he said and how he said it.
Having studied agriculture at university, worked on farms in Romania and France, done a spell in the EU Commission in Brussels and then served as Romania's agriculture minister in 2008, it was perhaps no surprise that he was extremely well-versed in matters agricultural.
The big issues, such as the budget, food security and the WTO, one would expect any political figure to have knowledge of. But even when it got down to some of the nitty-gritty, such as milk strikes, battery cage sizes, sugar reform and bananas, Mr Ciolos was still in his comfort zone.
He also struck just the right balance between arguing for a strong CAP, that will protect farm incomes and rural employment, and getting across the message that he is a reformist. The world is changing and the CAP has to change with it, was his central message.
Direct payments should stay, but should be allocated more fairly, while there should be a big enough budget for Pillar 2 measures to help modernise agriculture and combat climate change. That ticked all the MEPs' boxes.
And then there was the way in which Mr Ciolos faced his inquisitors.
Having spent a fair chunk of his working life in France, and being a fluent French speaker, he has already - and somewhat unkindly - been labelled "France's second commissioner" in Brussels. It was therefore a shrewd move on his part to kick off his opening address in English, before switching to his native Romanian.
Thereafter, whenever he was asked a question in French he answered in French, while questions from English MEPs were dealt with in English. Each question was answered clearly, calmly and knowledgably, making eye contact with each MEP in turn.
OK there were a few instances where he started to waffle, for example when asked for specific ways of calculating SFPs and when pressed on alternative methods of market intervention. But after three hours of questioning, often taking the same question in three different ways, that was hardly surprising.
It was also hardly surprising that, within just a few minutes of the hearing ending, the press releases started to go out from the various political parties and farmer representative groups, giving Mr Ciolos the thumbs up and pretty much assuring that he will, indeed, be the next EU agriculture commissioner.
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Ciolos' stand in the hearings comes as no surprise to me. I've met the man while he was a minister in the then liberal Romanian government. I must say hearing him speak and his approach to the farmers' issues made me see him more fit in a Brussels office than a Bucharest one.
Allthough I am a scheptic person by nature, I put my hopes in his profesional standards and hope he will cope well in the political struggle. Coming from a small and in many ways undeveloped country rarely helpes anyone, but that's a romanians farmer's closest thing to a somewhat safer future prospect.