I’m on a crusade!

A batting longer crusade.

Last week I spoke about the clarity and self-awareness that all the most successful players in Test cricket batting history have around their shot making. Steve Waugh was one example of a player who understood his scoring shot super strengths and stuck rigidly to his most successful and repeatable shots to accumulate just under 11000 Test runs.

So here are my top three considerations if you want to extend the length of your innings.

Self-Awareness shot-making: Play to your strengths

The clearer you are about your scoring game, the more effective you will be out in the middle. Those with the clearest minds make the most spontaneous decisions in the middle. The subconscious level of batting they achieve is often described as being “in the zone”.

For most of us, this only comes in those rare occasions when we bat at the top of our game. If I asked you to tell me what you were thinking when you played your best ever innings, you will tell me “I was thinking nothing” or “I can’t remember”. The players who feature in the top Test run scorers of all time had absolute clarity about how they score runs and the shots that they use to achieve their goals.

• What are your 3 best scoring shots to pace?
• What are your 3 best scoring shots to spin?

As one of my coaching mentors states “if you think, you die!” which sounds a bit morbid but I get what he means. The body and mind, if trained appropriately and in a disciplined fashion can self organise.

Play to the bowlers weaknesses

I hear players attributing the reason for playing a poor shot to “that’s the way I play” or “that is one of my best shots” quite a lot in changing rooms and in TV interviews. As I said above, self-awareness is crucial. If you have a great reverse sweep shot then play it more than your poor version of hitting the ball over the top of the mid off when facing an off spinner.

That makes sense doesn’t it?

However, we also have to take into consideration the weaknesses of your opponent, the guy bowling at the other end.

I listened to a great conversation between a coach (Steve) and a player (Tom) the other day. The batter had just scored 70 and the coach asked him about his shot selection options to the oppositions very slow leg spinner.

They talked through the first over that the leggy bowled.

• Ball one: Slightly dragged down, slow leg spinner pitching outside leg. Tom went for a pull and feathered inside of fine leg for two.
• Ball two: Similar ball, slightly straighter. Tom dispatched the ball into a great space between straight mid-wicket and deep mid-on for four. Top shot.
• Ball three: Slightly quicker delivery, similar length. Ball punched to deep cover for one.
• Ball four: Tom’s batting partner received a front foot no ball slow, full toss and hit it to deep mid-off for one.
• Free hit: Another slow leg spinner. Tom caught the ball before it bounced and played a slog sweep over square leg for six!
• Ball five: Tossed up ball. Tom played a reverse sweep (one of his favourite shots) and luckily, didn’t hit the ball with any power and it dropped short of the two men positioned behind square in the inner ring on the off side. If he had connected cleanly, he would have been caught.
• Ball six: Half Volley, single to deep mid-off.

16 off the over. 14 of them to Tom.

Steve asked Tom about his shot option on ball five. Naturally, Tom defended his reverse sweep option stating that it was one of his best options. Fair enough I hear you say. Steve went on to say that whilst having a clear idea of your own strengths is brilliant, that its really important yet we also have to use the bowlers weakness or characteristics against him.

Steve went on to ask Tom “Describe his bowling in that over”

Tom: “Really slow leg spinners, real slow, no pace to work with. Either very full or back of a length”

Steve: “Agreed. So what shot options would you advise someone else to consider against that pace and those lengths of bowler”

Tom: “Pulls definitely, you have to put pace on the ball and the slog sweep if you can catch it on the full like I did on the free hit”

Steve: “So lets go back to Ball five and the reverse sweep...”

Tom: “Well I would still play it as I was trying to move a fielder... but... actually, I didn’t need to do that did I? In fact, I almost got out when I had hit 13 off the over anyway and those other options would work better”

The quality of the question sequence used by Steve led Tom to effectively dismiss his previously held limited belief as being, well limited. It was a top bit of coaching and another additional layer to build on top of my number one consideration

Adaptations and concessions: Play the conditions

England Coach, Graeme Thorpe talks about adaptations and concessions.

It's basically where you adapt you technique and concede that a normally strong part of your game may be inappropriate against a certain bowler or ineffective on a certain type of pitch.

An example of this in Test cricket came in a India vs Australia Test in 1996.

Australia lost the toss and were due to bat last. The pitch was bone-dry, fractured and became more and more unpredictable in nature as the game wore on.

Steve Waugh picked up a 5-ball duck in the 1st Innings and then made a decision to limit his boundary scoring against the Anil Kumble to only one shot in the second innings. Anil Kumble picked up nine wickets in the match, India won comfortably. Waugh considers his 67* off 231 balls as one of his finest innings.

• Learn to understand your own strengths as a batter. Be as clear as you can on your best scoring shots. Use stats to support or challenge your view. This will help to sharpen your clarity
• Consider the bowlers weaknesses – Don’t be overly dogmatic about your strengths when the bowler is giving you more than enough easy scoring options through his own inadequacy
• Adapt your game in tough conditions – Follow Steve Waugh’s example when your “best” simply isn’t appropriate enough