Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is the pillar of Indian batting, mostly admired for his solid technique against fast bowling.
In my backlift, my bat comes up pointing in the direction of the second slip, with the result that my bat comes slightly across and I cannot play off-side strokes with fluency. I want to lift my bat, pointing towards the off stump. How can I do this?
I don’t believe that the backlift should be straight if the bat will meet the ball at an angle. Naturally, the straighter the backlift, the more chances there are that it will come down straight on the ball. There are many batsmen whose backlifts come from third-man, yet they meet the ball with the straightest of bats. This is the important thing.
To get the backlift straight, stand sideways close to the wall, and then practice lifting your bat. Every time you lift your bat at an angle, it will bang against the wall, and only the straight backlift will come through freely. Practice this for half an hour every day, and then shadow-practice in front of a mirror (at a safe distance!) to see how much improvement is there.
I am a fairly confident right-hand batsman. I cannot deal with the ball that leaves the right-hander after pitching. More often than not, I tend to stick it to either the wicketkeeper or slips.
Not knowing whether you are tall or short, it is a bit difficult to advise, but I would suggest taking a middle-stump guard. This way, you will not play inside the ball and snick it as you are doing now. The middle-stump guard will bring you more in line with the ball with your body as well and minimize the chances of a snick.
I am an opening batsman. I feel I get into trouble because of my high backlift. I think I would not be able to get sufficient power behind my strokes without this. I am not very tall. What should I do? Should an opening bat focus more on his man’s backfoot play?
A high backlift is not advisable against quick bowling or even against medium-pace bowlers bowling with the new ball. I would suggest that in the first few overs, you cut your backlift, and once you feel in’ then the high backlift should be no problem.
Sunil Manohar Gavaskar said, Don’t be predetermined about either front- or back-foot play. Move according to the pitch of the ball.
I find it hard to play the drive on the on-side, and it is equally difficult to play the ball off the toes on the legside. What would you suggest to strengthen the wrists and improve footwork?
Playing the on-drive is a very difficult task. Open up your front foot so that it is pointing straight and lean onto the ball pitched on the leg stump. It will take a long time to master the stroke, so don’t give up trying A flick to leg is played off a ball that is overpitched on or outside the leg stump. Once again, open up your chest a bit, with your body almost facing the bowler, and play the shot.
I wonder how many batsmen in the world can figure out which way the bowler is going to swing the ball. Watch the bowler’s arm closely, if it brushes the ear, then nine out of ten he is bowling in-swingers, if his arm comes out a little wider, then he is trying to bowl out-swingers.
Use hand-spring grips for strengthening wrists and do plenty of skipping and running to improve footwork.
Read More: Yograj Singh: Equally talented as Kapil Dev?
