49 Millfield cricketers are heading to Mumbai this December to play 18 fixtures on spinning surfaces against lots of spin bowlers.

The pitches are going to spin more appreciably than the ones we are used to in the UK. For some players, this will be their first experience of sub-continent conditions, so what are we teaching the players them to prepare for the “spinning experience” of their life?

The starting point to me is having a view of what “world class” looks like.

How do the best players of spin operate?

What is their overall philosophy?

1. The best players of spin either get to the pitch of the ball with good forward foot movement or get away from the bounce of the ball with good backward movement.
2. More limited players of spin bowling - particularly on wickets that turn - are those who die in “the hole” or “crease” as its more commonly known.
3. Attacking from the crease in turning conditions is fraught with danger. This is not my blind opinion; this has been backed up through extensive research.

Analysis of the most successful players of spin in the sub-continent supports all of the above statements.

Analysis of players such as Younis Khan, Rahul Dravid, and Virat Kohli is a great starting point when it comes to developing anyone’s game against spin.

From this research, we have drawn up a list of areas and concepts to cover in the coming weeks:

• Use of feet forward
• Use of feet backwards
• When caught on the crease, defend by letting the ball hit the bat; not the bat hitting the ball.
• Sweep options on turning surfaces
• When it spins big, learn to attack more, not less.
• Make the “box” (target area) for the bowler to land the ball as small as possible.

So let’s look at how we can develop players so that they have confidence and competence to use their feet in a forward motion against spin bowlers.

Moving down the pitch to spin

There are lots of moving down the wicket drills that I use but the simplest one (simple is often the best) is hitting a dropped ball from a feeder who is simulating the ball bouncing on a length.

The feeder drops the ball, the batter moves quickly to the ball and either hits it along the ground or over the top.

Why do we start with the simple dropped ball drill?

Too often I see batters only practicing hitting over the top against bowlers or throws.

This is effectively the equivalent of a car going from stationary to 50mph using only fourth gear: It’s an inefficient and poor option.

The one-ball dropping feed drill is first gear to get the player used to the movement pattern associated with coming down the pitch.

Layering progression

If the feeder holds out two balls (one in each hand) at shoulders width apart then they can choose which one to drop.

One of the balls will drop slightly closer to the batter and the other one slightly further from the batter when they are dropped.

This encourages the batter to develop two different types of foot movement and gives them confidence of moving out to the length ball (which often goes over the top) and the slightly over-pitched ball, which wouldn’t be controllable from the crease.

The two ball drop feed drill then introduces the following things that then help us:

• Introduces decision making
• Opening up adaptable movement patterns to cover subtle differences in traversing distance to get to the pitch of the ball.
• Develops the precision in execution of the shot through repetition: developing the capacity to either stroke the ball over the top of the inner ring or boundary, and to have the option of beating the bowler on either side to pick up singles, doubles and fours.

It’s a simple drill that works.

The feeder’s role is so simple which means that young players can run this drill without a coach being involved.

Give it a go.