5 captains who introduced revolutionary moves in cricket

#2. The pinch hitter by Martin Crowe

Crowe sent Mark Greatbatch (pictured), a tailender, up the order

Promoting a tailender in the batting order is not a new concept in cricket. The 'night watchmen' have been used since time eternal and their role is also well-defined.

The night watchmen are used to guard the main batsmen and the role of these watchmen is to simply block and survive the ordeal.

In 1992, Martin Crowe gave this concept of sending a tailender at the top of the order a completely new dimension and thus emerged the term, 'pinch-hitter'. The New Zealand captain promoted Mark Greatbatch in the batting order and asked him to swing his arms freely to anything that was bowled to him.

Crowe's plan was simple. If Greatbatch was successful then the team would gain quick runs and if he failed then there was very little to lose as he wasn't a frontline batsmen.

To New Zealand's joy, their pinch hitter was indeed successful as so was their skipper's strategy. Pinch-hitters have become extremely common in modern cricket and it has also led to the creation of 'utility cricketers' who don't excel in any one skill but can do a little of batting as well as bowling.

The advent of T20 cricket has made pinch-hitting a mandatory skill and has reflected the effectiveness of Crowe's move.

Crowe pioneered the concept of pinch-hitter in ODI cricket