Cricket All Rounder Tips: Shane Watson


Hi Coach, I want to become an all-rounder like Shane Watson, how should I practice?

Hi, Shane is establishing himself as the best emerging allrounder in world cricket.

The key aspects of his batting game are an ability to pick up length very quickly, fantastic front foot driving ability and a strong backfoot game characterised by a trademark Watson pull shot through midwicket.

You will need to do a lot of work on your front and back foot defensive play, which allows you to bat for long periods, defence gives you this.

He has good ability to rotate strike, which breaks up the bowlers pattern of his over.

Work on using your defensive game to rotate strike, drop the ball in front of you on the off and on side, working it into space.

Lots of work on your driving from mid on to extra cover using throw downs, nets and bowling machine, like wise for your back foot game, cutting and pulling.

Shane is an excellent swing bowler, sideways on with a lovely classical high front arm action and sweeping follow through. His development has been highlighted most recently with his outstanding performance in the last test against South Africa in Cape Town, where he took five wickets with genuine late swing.November 2011.

Control and focus are critically important, read some of my other posts in the section on fast bowling tips to see my recommendations for drills for this.

To work on your swing bowling put the ball into your hand in the normal position with the seam up straight and cock your wrist, with the seam and hand angled toward first slip, this allows the ball to swing late.

Bowl a full length to draw the batter onto the front foot, Waqar Younis and Dale Steyn’s success has been built on holding a fuller length than most other bowlers.

Good skills and best wishes, Coach

Comments for Cricket All Rounder Tips: Shane Watson

Mar 02, 2015 how to become a better bowler NEW
by: vivek rao Part 1 of 4: Improving Your Strength and Conditioning

1
Become strong. To generate a vast amount of pace, you must broaden your shoulders, and build muscle on your arms and legs. Use dumbbells for your arms, bench press to broaden your shoulders, and leg exercise to keep your legs strong.

2
Improve your conditioning. Fast bowlers tend to bowl immense pace for many overs. This requires stamina. Be sure to run long distances so you can handle bowling a lot of overs, and get faster on your sprints, so you can maintain a quick run-up.

3
Build speed. Before you focus on line and length, you must work on speed. You do not need to reach the fastest you can bowl, but gradually improve speed until you feel comfortable with the pace you bowl at.

Part 2 of 4: Learning to Focus Accurately

1
Focus on line. As you may realize, raw pace won’t do the trick. Fast bowlers vary line and length to give batsman a hard time. Make sure the line you bowl is generally on middle stump to off stump, try not to bowl down the leg side, as most of those tend to either be hit or called for wides.

2
Focus on length. A great fast bowler will pitch most of his deliveries good length, and will bowl the occasional yorker or bouncer to stump the batsman. Try not to bowl too short or too full, as those tend to be hit away for boundaries. However, do not always bowl good length, as the batsman may recognize where you pitch it and play attacking strokes according to where the ball will bounce.

Part 3 of 4: Bowling Techniques

1
Use swing and cut. Fast bowlers tend to swing or cut the ball many times when they bowl. Cut is used to surprise batsman after the ball bounces. A leg cutter may be used to get the batsman caught behind or caught at slip. An off cutter is generally used to either bowl the batsman or get him LBW. Although cut is very helpful to a bowler, how a bowler swings may sometimes define him as a fast bowler. Swing the ball in and out to stump batsman where the ball is going. I cannot get very detailed with inswing and out swing for that will require a completely new article.

2
Make use of the jump and hand speed. As you learn and become better, you can make use of the wrist speed as a third technique. Know that the wrist plays a vital role in fast bowling. Many players use hand speed with regards of the jump.

Use the 12 wrist momentum. During the run up, do not keep your wrist straight. Instead, keep your wrist facing right upwards. At the time of release, throw the ball with help of wrist; this will add the wrist speed to the existing speed, allowing you to generate a great pace.

4
Study the batsman. Bowl certain deliveries to see how the batsman would react to them. Perhaps bowl one a little wide on off or leg to see how he would react to them. See if he’ll hit short deliveries or duck. Observe how he faces swing or cut. Find out if he is defensive, attacking, or both. Know his role for the team, if they need to save a wicket, or just slog. Having knowledge of the batsman will ultimately help you to get him out.

5
Be mentally strong. Part of being a bowler is keeping your cool, not matter if you have just taken a hat trick or if you’ve been hit for many boundaries. Don’t listen to batsman taunts. Also, never let your emotions affect the way you bowl your next delivery, always keep the same face.

Part 4 of 4: Appreciating the Game

1
Be motivated and even when you are feeling tired keep going as that’s how you build your stamina. Never give up, always remember that good fast bowlers persist for hours and hours just to get it right. Whenever you are bowling (at the nets in a game) always try to bowl as fast as you can – don’t worry at first that you will be a bit inconsistent as that’s normal. After a while you will start generating pace and be bowling in the right areas (i.e. outside the off stump).

Tips
• Keep working out everyday so you can stay healthy, strong, and ready to bowl.
• Keep the balls in line of the stump so that there is more chance for getting him dismissed.
• Give a few deliveries to batsman so that you can know how the batsman is and get him dismissed by bowling in the place where he can`t play or is weak and plays a poor shot.
• Always have some milk and eggs before you go out to bowl. The protein in it helps in increasing your efficiency so as to bowl for a longer period of time without running out of energy.
• Rather than beating the new bowl, he must try to make the batsman to play drives through offside, so there is a chance to get edge or else caught behind. The new seamers have to keep their 90 percent of balls in a bit outside the off stump.
• Do not bowl for long periods at a time or everyday as your shoulder, arm and back will get sore if you overwork. Have at least 1 day a week off and do not bowl for longer than an hour at a time. If you are a junior you should have at least 2 days a week off and not bowl for longer than 45 minutes at a time and learn how to swing the ball..

 


May 10, 2014 I have to become a good all rounder
by: Anonymous Coach
I am an allrounder an attacking pace bowler and an NO 6 lower order batsman.I have to improve both batting and bowling and please give some tips to maintain good line and length and bowling speed

I have to become a good all rounder in my city and i have to improve mainly my bowling so please help coach…


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Richard Pybus

About Richard Pybus

I'm Richard Pybus, I've coached Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middlesex, Titans and the Cape Cobras in South Africa and the goal of this site is to help you to play winning cricket.