5 batsmen with unorthodox techniques who crafted great careers

When you talk about unorthodox cricketers, a lot of spinners, Saeed Ajmal and Sunil Narine being a couple, come to mind instantly. When it comes to batsmen, Tillakaratne Dilshan has been known to invent quite a few shots of his own, his most innovative one being the ‘Dil Scoop’, a delightful shot to watch, wherein he bends down and manoeuvres the ball over his own head and behind the wicket-keeper for four. You just can’t have a fielder for that kind of a shot.Matthew Hayden created a sensation with the use of the ‘Mongoose Bat’ which featured a bigger handle and a smaller blade that made pinch-hitting easier. Chris Gayle is another player who is unconventional, not so much in the way he plays but in the way he thinks and approaches a game. For him, there is no situation where he cannot contemplate hitting the ball out of the park, which explains how he can do it so often.Here are five batsmen who don’t adhere to the textbook style of batting, but have managed to craft great careers:

#1 Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen may no longer be part of the national team, but it will not be wrong to say that he was the best and most destructive English batsman while he was part of their line-up. Perhaps Andrew Flintoff came close to matching how dangerous he was, but that was about it.

Pietersen plundered bowling attacks at will, and whenever he was in the middle batting, the match was most certainly going England’s way.

He is perhaps the most unconventional batsman of the modern era. Credited with the invention of the switch hit, he was the centre of a lot of debate and controversy after he first used it in a game on whether it was a legitimate shot.

Nevertheless, it became an accepted shot thereafter, and he used it in a number of games to fox the bowlers, and it was a big hit in the IPL as well. He was able to get good success out of this, and even hit bowlers like Muttiah Muralitharan for six with this technique.

He was never afraid to dance down the wicket and try his shots. In fact, it was a regular habit with him. He got a majority of his runs on the on-side. Even deliveries bowled outside the off-stump would be whacked through mid-wicket if he so desired.

He was adjudged Man of the Tournament in the World T20 that England won in 2010. Although the ECB ended his term as a player at the beginning of this year, he has had a glorious run on the field, and English supporters would surely want him to return, controversy or no controversy.

He has scored 8,181 Test runs in 181 innings at 47.28 and 4,440 ODI runs in 125 innings at 40.73. In T20s, he has 2951 runs against his name at a strike rate of 132.45.

#2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine Chanderpaul is the best modern day West Indian batsman after Brian Lara in terms of his temperament, number of runs scored and his contribution to West Indian cricket. He has achieved all this with the most peculiar of batting stances that you will see in cricket. And at 40, he is still going strong.

He has 11,000 plus Test runs and 8,000 plus ODI runs under his belt. Quoting Geoffrey Boycott, “Chanderpaul has been the glue that’s kept West Indies going’”. He has played some brilliant innings throughout the globe against various oppositions.

You will almost never see him charge forward at the bowler. Instead, he likes to play the ball late, and comes up with his own improvisations. He seldom hits the ball very hard except while pulling, which comes very naturally to him given his quirky batting stance.

Other than that, he likes to play cuts, late cuts, sweeps and reverse sweeps – he relies more on cheeky yet effective ways of scoring rather than brute force.

His 100 off 69 balls in a Test match at Guyana against Australia is one of his most special knocks, shortly after which he made another hundred in the same series to chase down 418 at Antigua, which is a record chase in Test cricket. He was also the star of the series against India in 2002, wherein he smashed 3 tons in 4 matches to hand West Indies the series.

#3 Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya is, perhaps, the most fearless cricketer of his generation. He was least bothered about who was bowling or how the field was set, or what kind of a reputation the opposition carried. All that mattered to him was the merit of the ball, and he did set very high standards for that too.

He always looked in a hurry to score more and more runs, but the truth is that he was so good at banishing even the good balls from his presence that the runs not only came but also at a fast pace.

His batting style characterized a very strong bottom hand and brilliant hand-eye coordination, which made up for the footwork he did not have or was too reluctant to show. Often referred to as the king of sixes, he scored 13,430 ODI runs at an impressive strike rate of 91.20, including 270 sixes.

He could cut the ball over point, pull it over mid-wicket or flick it over square leg, all with the same result – six runs. He was also very good at making last minute adjustments, which is very important for a player who likes to play pre-determined shots.

If say he wanted to play the ball on the off-side initially and got a delivery on leg stump, he would just make the late adjustment and flick it for four almost behind the wicket, easily beating fine leg.

He was Man of the Tournament in 1996 when Sri Lanka lifted the World Cup, and scored a brilliant 340, his highest Test score, against India at Colombo the following year. His highest ODI score (189) came at Sharjah in 2000, once again while playing against his favored opposition – the Indians.

#4 Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith led South Africa for 11 years, and had a dream run as both captain and batsman. He was chosen to be captain with just one year of international experience behind his back, and he did not disappoint.

Though not the most elegant of batsmen you will see on a cricket pitch, he got the job done more often than not. He scored 9,265 Test runs at 48.25 and 6,989 ODI runs at 37.98 in his career.

He displayed one of the most heroic acts ever seen in cricket when he walked out to bat against Australia at No. 11 in the SCG Test of 2009 with a broken arm, with the aim of surviving the 8 overs left in the day and saving the match. He did well for the most part, but was unfortunately bowled with just 10 balls left in the game.

Really strong through mid-wicket and the point region, Smith relied more on timing and finding the gaps rather than being technically very sound and playing conventional cricket shots. He lacked the natural elegance that most left-handers possess, but his brutality in the way he hit his shots and got runs was an altogether different treat to watch.

He also impressed in the IPL as part of the Rajasthan Royals side in the first edition when they went on to win the tournament. He played 86 T20 innings and got 2389 runs at a strike rate of 123.08 and an average of 29.86.

#5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Before MS Dhoni was given captaincy on the basis of a gut feel by the selectors in 2007, he was recognized mainly for his batting and, well, for his swiftness behind the stumps. He was viewed as this long-haired crazy hitter who had his own way of going about things. Nobody could have seen the success he has had with his captaincy coming. But the world was already a fan of the way he batted.

The customary adjustment of gloves, followed by a poke in the left eye before taking stance – Dhoni’s style was missed by none. His approach to batting has not changed much since then.

He will first try and get his eye in, use the first 10-12 balls for taking singles, and then go for the big shots. He is also one of the fastest runners between wickets till today. What is also great about him is that he can shift gears according to any situation.

He manages to achieve extraordinary results with the most unorthodox of strokes. The reason is the enormous amount of raw power he puts in. Probably nobody hits a six so hard as to bring the bat down following a full 360 degree rotation after making the connection.

Even his mishits can yield maximums, such is the strength of his bat swing. He once hit a six against New Zealand without even looking at the ball after hitting it; he just put willow to the ball and knew it was sailing all the way.

His 183 against Sri Lanka at Jaipur and his twin scores of 148 vs Pakistan at Vishakhapatnam & Lahore were the early highlights of his career, a sign that India had finally found an explosive wicket-keeper batsman which it was always looking for. He currently has 8,192 ODI runs to his name at an average of 52.85, 4,808 Test runs at an average of 38.46 and 4,035 T20 runs at a strike rate of 136.59. He has been one of India’s best finishers of all-time.