5 gully cricket skills relevant at the highest level

#2 Playing the ball along the ground

Strike the ball low

Another coaching manual stuff is playing the ball along the ground in Tests and finding gaps. The lofted shot is always on, but with the red seaming cherry, you need to know to play the ball along the ground and pierce gaps.

In gully cricket, there is the unusual 'one-pitch-catch' rule you hated as a batsman. You drop the ball with soft hands only to see that the fielder has grabbed it on one-pitch and you have to surrender the bat to the next guy walking in. But this strange rule could actually help you in proper Test cricket. How?

To avoid that one-pitch-catch you are bound to play the ball as low to the ground as possible and you also need to pick the gap.

With so many fielders all around the bat, it takes a special skill to hang around with the bat for long. The skilled street cricket bowlers try every which way to make you play in the air so that you gift a one-pitch-catch.

Even a ball that bounces shoulder high is negotiated safely by a gully cricketer, as he dabs the ball close to the ground out of reach of any close-in fielder.

That is another skill you did not know you possess.