For the brave lion, the wily fox and the patient saint

As the history of cricket suggests, almost all the batsmen who have played the great game have had a weakness or two with their batting technique. But the game, somehow, has produced and still does manage to produce a lot of “greats” despite this handicap. Is this mere good fortune, a matter of luck or is there something more to it? The answer lies in the success of ordinary players who have risen to the ranks of match winners and a few match winners who have grown to be known as the “legends” of the game.

Be it a Brian Lara whose exaggerated back-lift exposed him to yorkers and LBW situations, a Steve Waugh whose initial movement made him a ‘sitting-duck’ for bouncers, our very own Sourav Ganguly who struggled with rib-ticklers, or the little master, who even to this day gets cleaned up with the incoming deliveries off-length – these are players who had their own share of struggles when it came to their batting technique. At this juncture, it is worthy to make a mention of the mental aspect of the game and the importance of strategies that saw these men climb the ranks in the revered version of the game.

Steve Waugh who was constantly made to jump around in his crease throughout his career, managed to score 10,927 test runs and steer Australia into its golden era of cricket. So how did he do it?

Waugh’s strategy was simple, but certainly not for the faint hearted. In his mind, he had reached a level of acceptance where he considered the hits to his body as a part of the game and readily took a few blows. At times, he would sledge the quicks on tricky pitches and provoke then to bowl bouncers. In the process of terrorizing ‘tugga’ Waugh, the bowlers would bang it in short, than pitching it in the areas which were more likely to fetch his wicket.

He would grind his teeth and hang on till the bowlers were drained. Later, he would pounce on every bad delivery, making sure every blow he got was accounted for. Now, that’s called “The nerves of steel” strategy, which is surely not everyone’s cuppa. The famous battle between Curtley Ambrose “The terror” and Steve Waugh during the Third Test at Trinidad in 2005, is well documented.

The innings that Sachin Tendulkar played at SCG in 2003 highlighted the quality of abstinence. At one point in time, there was nobody who could play the cover-drive in international cricket as well as Tendulkar, but this time, it was while trying to play the same ‘cover-drive’ that he was being dismissed often. There was something amiss and Sachin was sharp enough to detect this. Then came the innings at SCG where he got to his century without playing a single cover drive. “The abstainence strategy” worked well for Sachin who got 241 runs in that innings, the maestro digging himself out of a hole yet again.

We have seen a lot of tail-enders win matches for their sides by way of simple strategies and plans. The role of the tail during the 2005 Ashes proved the fact that batting was more about application than perfect technique. Many a times, it’s the tail that has wagged to deny victory to the opposition, sometimes taking the match to the death and on occasions snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. How else would you expect a Brett Lee, Kasparowicz, Monty Panesar, Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Gillespie and the gritty tail-end fraternity to come up with rock-solid resistence and save/win matches for their sides? Obviously, they did not spend a lot of time on their batting at the nets.

Application, grit and immense belief in one’s strategy seems to be the bottom line.There is a lot to be learned from all these players. Talented ones like Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh from India and many other talents who have been struggling for a place in the Indian test team can take some heart from these instances. They should look at strategies that suits their game/personalities the best and make a mark in the longer version of the game and guide India to the top spot in the world rankings.

Similar innings involving perfect execution of a solid strategy have been demonstrated by many players, time and again. It’s pretty clear that if you want the top spot in international cricket, you have to be a brave-heart, a wily-fox or a saint with immense patience who never gives in to temptation. It’s alright if the strategies turn out to look ugly as long as you deliver the goods.